TO: Activities Coordinators

CC: Activities Secretaries, Secondary Principals, Kate Maguire, Teri Staloch, Christian Olson
FROM: Astein K. Osei
DATE: April 1, 2014
RE: Change in practice regarding declaration for athletic participation

_______________________________________________________________________________________

This memo describes:
A change in practice regarding declaration for athletic participation, and
Requests for Activities Coordinators regarding communication of this change.

Change in practice
Effective immediately, our district will no longer allow 8
th
graders to declare their intention to participate in the
athletics program at their senior high school of choice (assuming they were planning to apply for open
enrollment at a high school other than their attendance area school).

The key reason for the change: we anticipate as we transition to new grade spans for 2015-2016, open
enrollment at some or all high schools may be restricted. Therefore, we do not want to make commitments to
8
th
graders now that we may not be able to meet when they actually get to high school in 2015-2016.

Once we move to high schools with 9-12 grade spans, the process of declaring for athletic participation will be
obsolete because 9
th
graders will already be enrolled at the high school level. Therefore, this change will
affect 2014-2015 only.

This decision was made using feedback from the Activities Program Advisory Council. Based on the past four
years of data, we anticipate it will affect a small number of students.

Requests for activities coordinators

1. Share this information with all coaches at your school.
2. Remove the link to the declaration for participation form from your schools website.
3. Remove materials pertaining to declaration for participation from your activity office.

I anticipate you will receive questions regarding this change in practice. Please let me know if you need
assistance in responding to questions you receive that have not been addressed in this communication.