DATE: Tuesday, October 28, 1997             TAG: 9710280276
SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY NANCY YOUNG, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   55 lines

STUDENT ATHLETES IN CHESAPEAKE MUST MAINTAIN 2.0 GPA TO PLAY

Notice to athletes and other participants in Virginia High School League activities: Starting next year you'll have to maintain a 2.0 grade point average to keep participating.

On Monday, the School Board unanimously passed the required GPA ``in concept,'' although many of the details still need to be worked out - such as transportation for after-school study halls, middle school eligibility and the level of tutoring that will be available to struggling students.

``We need some time to think it through,'' said Superintendent W. Randolph Nichols, adding that he and the staff would submit a more detailed plan to the board. ``We'll work out all the regulation. . . . It's very difficult to answer all of the questions until we pull this all together.''

For now though, it looks as though students will need to maintain a 2.0 GPA each semester in grades nine through 12, although they will be given one probationary semester in which they will be allowed to participate even if their grades dip below the minimum.

Voluntary after-school study halls could be in place by the end of the week - with Nichols recommending that schools have three 45-minute study halls per week. The study halls will be available to all students regardless of whether they participate in VHSL activities, although they will only become mandatory for VHSL participants who fall below the 2.0 GPA.

The study halls eventually will be a combination of a traditional study hall, where students work on their own, to one where there will be tutoring available from both teachers and students, said Nichols. He added that, initially, the study halls will probably not include the tutoring at the level he would like to see in the future.

Chesapeake is the last South Hampton Roads district to pass a minimum-GPA policy. Suffolk began requiring a minimum GPA in 1991 and Portsmouth in 1994. Virginia Beach's policy went into effect this fall, and Norfolk's is scheduled for the fall of 1998.

The required GPA had come up for a board vote once before, but board members deferred making a decision until the administration provided more details of how the plan would work, including how it would close loopholes that would allow students to abuse the probationary semester.

``The new information gets past a lot of the loophole issues, and they've made it clear that the study hall won't just be a regular study hall,'' said board member James J. Wheaton.

In the 1996-97 school year, 21 percent of Chesapeake student athletes had a grade point average below 2.0. If the policy had been implemented last year, the football team, which had 45 percent of its players earning less than a 2.0, would have been hardest hit. Azarie G. Waters, a Chesapeake resident and retired social worker, said the board's decision would unfairly exclude students who could benefit from participating in VHSL activities.

``I'm not against raising grade point averages, but I don't think they should be used against students who wish to participate in activities,'' said Waters. KEYWORDS: CHESAPEAKE SCHOOLS GRADE POINT AVERAGE ELIGIBILITY

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