Plains passes sports policies

The members of the Plains School took less than 30 minutes to approve two new policies and this year's school sports handbook.

Some residents have questioned why the school had no dual sports policy, such as the one Thompson Falls has on hand. The Dual Activities Policy and the Activities Fundraising Policy were both unanimously approved by board members Ellen Childress, Monica Weedeman, Lana Dicken, and chairman Beau French.

The two policies were written by the school's new athletic director, Russell Kujala, and are part of the school student sports handbook. Dicken helped with minor revisions to the two policies. The meeting was attended by only Kujala, teacher Lisa Brown, also the golf team coach, Erika Lawyer, and the recently hired high school principal, Heidii Fettinger of Great Falls, who wanted to meet the school board members.

The board looked over the policy documents a week earlier at their first special board meeting on the subject, but said there were a few lines that needed clarification. The board held the second special meeting in order to get the documents done before sports practices started for football, cross country and volleyball on Friday. The next regularly scheduled school board meeting was scheduled for Aug. 19. The first competition will be a cross country meet at Plains on Friday, Aug. 30, at 9 a.m. The Horsemen will face the Pirates at Victor on Saturday, Aug. 31, at 1 p.m. The Trotters volleyball team takes on Florence at Plains on Tuesday, Sept. 3, at 4 p.m.

Lawyer was concerned about determining a player's eligibility to play on a varsity and junior varsity squad without three or four practices, but according to the policy, for a student that wants to participate in two sports during one season "a coach might only allow JV or C-squad participation, regardless of skill, depending on the circumstances and overall impact to the team. In this case, it will be known prior to participating in their final decision to dual sport/activity." The policy notes that the student must choose which would be his or her primary sport or activity.

"We had a policy referring to dual sport participation, but it was solely up to the principal to approve or not approve. This allows a more well rounded approach to getting to an approval involving coaches, players, the athletic director, and the principal," said French.

With regards to fundraising for sports teams and activities, there were concerns about money already raised, but it was determined that money would stay with the particular sport or activity. "All fundraising events and activities for athletes must be brought to the athletic director for approval by the administration before the start," the policy states. It also notes that other extracurricular activities need to be approved by the principal. Funds turned into the clerk must be marked for the correct extracurricular activity. It also pointed out that parents, students, coaches, or advisors would be allowed to raise funds without approval if the fundraising took place during the summer because they are not school sponsored events.

Lawyer also inquired about the school reducing games for one sport, but not another. She was also concerned about the number of games being reduced due to a lack of funds when players have offered to raise funds in support of games. However, French stated that games were being scaled back across the board and it was being done for budgetary reasons and to curtail students' loss of instruction. Lawyer sent an email requesting the school to reinstate the basketball tip-off games, saying they would have a fundraiser to pay for the games.

Only minor changes were made to the 39-page student sports handbook, which must be renewed and approved annually and includes the revised consent and insurance verification form.