After a review of the current
CMS athletic eligibility rules, Superintendent Peter
Gorman released new rules today. He had enlisted a committee of local citizens and
CMS employees to help with these new policies. (For the record I was turned down for a position on the committee. I also must add that Dr.
Gorman never even acknowledged the receipt of my emails on some ideas I thought would be very helpful. All of that was
disappointing and left me with a few opinions that I will not share here.)
Let's move past that and talk about the new rules. First off, I agree with most everything in the press release posted below. A lot of it deals with an Honor system, which I think is great for some, but I can assure you the same people that cheated the system before, certainly aren't going to all of a sudden become honest because they have to sign an Honor Code.
The Hot Line to report violations is a good idea, but
CMS must insure that each accusation is dealt with in a consistent matter. The whole
South Meck football issue compared to how the West Charlotte and Independence football issues were handled, was a major mistake.
I fully support the idea that Athletic Directors jobs need to be full time jobs. I see first hand how hard some of these
AD's work and to tell them they also need to teach 2-3 classes is a little too much. With that said, you have to hire competent
AD's that know the rules and know how to follow them. You can't have AD's that are breaking rules as we saw at one high school last year.
We are lucky in South Charlotte to have some incredibly talented people serving as AD's. Going back to South
Meck football, a mistake by an AD should NEVER, EVER lead to a kid being penalized or a whole team having a season yanked out from under them.
I applaud
CMS for not making the decision to require a kid to sit out a year if he makes a legitimate move from one school to another. I was really worried this was going to happen and I think that would have been a mistake. We are in a big city, people are going to move, school lines are going to change,
don't penalize a kid for this.
Overall, good job, I just wish I could have been a part or at least gotten an email or call returned by Dr.
Gorman.
CMS announces improvements to
athletic-eligibility system
Changes include honor codes, better training
and a whistleblower e-mail and phone line
CHARLOTTE, N.C., Aug. 15, 2008 – Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools announced widespread changes to improve verification for athletic eligibility. A new rule requires students, parents and coaches to sign an honor code before participating in sports. Other changes include a system to track student-athletes, a dedicated phone number and e-mail address to report suspected violations, and additional training for principals, athletic directors and coaches.
“We believe it’s important for everyone involved in sports to play fair,” said CMS Superintendent Dr. Peter C. Gorman. “These changes will help ensure that happens.”
The changes were based on 11 recommendations made by a 24-member athletic eligibility advisory committee formed in January after a record number of student-athletes were declared ineligible during the 2007-2008 fall and winter sports seasons. Four CMS football teams also forfeited their seasons due to eligibility violations. The committee reviewed district procedures and school board policies regarding athletic eligibility.
The committee spent four months studying and learning about athletic-eligibility issues before issuing 11 non-policy recommendations. Since then, CMS staff has been researching ways to put the recommendations into practice.
The first major changes affecting students, parents and coaches are required meetings and honor codes. The athletic eligibility advisory committee recommended required open houses for parents and students before fall and spring sports seasons. Schools have held open houses for parents of student-athletes in the past, but they were not required.
Starting this school year, parents and athletes must attend preseason meetings that will include a presentation on athletic-eligibility rules. Parents must sign an honor code pledging that they will follow all eligibility rules and will report suspected violations. The parent honor codes must be signed before student-athletes can play their first game. Student-athletes were required to sign an honor code before practicing. In addition, all CMS coaches were required to sign an honor code before coaching their teams.
“I believe that signing this honor code shifts some of the responsibility to play fair where it belongs – to coaches, to players and to parents,” said Dr. Gorman.
The athletic eligibility advisory committee also recommended the district create an anonymous whistle-blowing system for the public to report suspected eligibility violations. CMS has developed a dedicated phone number and e-mail address for students, parents and members of the community to report suspected athletic-eligibility violations. The phone number is 980-343-1098 and the e-mail address is playfair@cms.k12.nc.us. The phone line and e-mail address will be monitored by CMS Law Enforcement and all suspected violations will be investigated.
Another recommendation included developing a system to track student-athletes. CMS is now using the online student records database to document the school placement and eligibility status of student-athletes.
The athletic eligibility advisory committee also suggested CMS communicate clearly the eligibility rules and consequences to students, parents and staff. District staff created a list of frequently asked questions that will be available at each CMS high school, the learning community offices, and on the CMS Web site.
Eligibility rules and consequences are also posted on the athletics department page of the CMS Web site and in the CMS Parent-Student Handbook and the CMS High School Planning Guide. CMS TV will produce a series of programs explaining eligibility rules and consequences, and is developing an athletic-eligibility DVD that will be shown in all high schools.
Other recommendations from the athletic eligibility advisory committee included:
- Ensuring adequate personnel to launch and monitor processes.
CMS is exploring the option of making the athletic director position a full-time one. The superintendent will include funding for those positions in the 2009/2010 budget-planning process. The district also added a temporary part-time compliance position in the athletics department that is funded from August to December 2008.
- Creating a slogan for eligibility and the role of athletics.
All athletic-eligibility materials will include the “Play Fair” message to remind students, parents and coaches that only eligible players will participate in CMS sports.
- Creating a structured education process for principals, athletic directors, coaches and students.
Coaches, principals and area superintendents were required to attend a pre-season eligibility meeting to review the rules and consequences. Athletic directors also attended a full-day opening of schools meeting which included an extensive session on eligibility. Monthly athletic directors’ meetings will also include sessions on eligibility. In addition, high school registrars and magnet-school staff will receive detailed athletic-eligibility information in their training sessions before school starts.
- Developing a required compliance test for coaches.
CMS supports mandatory ongoing education programs for coaches to reinforce the importance of knowing and following all rules. However, CMS staff believes the test would be better if it were developed and administered at the state level. CMS will propose the requirement at the North Carolina High School Athletic Association’s October meeting.
- Developing a video that all student-athletes and their parents must view before participating in sports.
The North Carolina High School Athletic Association produced a presentation on state athletic eligibility rules that will be shown at every required preseason parent meeting.
“The work of this committee has been very important in strengthening our verification process,” said Dr. Gorman. “We are grateful for their hard work.”
The athletic eligibility advisory committee also reviewed proposed policy changes, but generally favored keeping the district’s existing policies on eligibility with some minor changes. The first change affects tuition-paying students. Effective in the 2008-2009 school year, students will not be allowed to play sports the first year they pay tuition. Students who already pay tuition to attend CMS, or who lived in the district in 11th grade and are paying tuition to finish their senior year in CMS, will not have to sit out a year. Previously, tuition-paying students were allowed to play sports without sitting out.
The district also changed its rules for students living with a non-parent adult. Under the new rule, students living with a non-parent adult as a result of a documented hardship will be allowed to play sports after they have been enrolled in CMS for two semesters. Strict documentation of the family situation is required to determine hardship status. Under the previous rule, students living with a non-parent adult who did not have legal custody or legal guardianship were not eligible to play sports.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education approved a change to the student-assignment policy at its meeting on July 22. The change will allow juniors and seniors who move out of an attendance area after school starts to stay at their original school until graduation. Previously, students who moved out of an attendance area could remain at the school until the end of the year. They had to change to the school serving their new address the following school year. The amendment aligns with the Board’s longstanding practice of not requiring rising seniors to attend different schools when CMS opens new schools or changes high school boundaries.
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