Pass-To-Play Dropped In Conn. City

BRIDGEPORT — Jannette Latorre, 15, a Bassick High School sophomore, admits that a districtwide policy that required her to pass core courses in order to play softball motivated her to bring a D in science up to a B.

Still, she and other student-athletes say many of their teammates didn’t respond well to that policy and when they flunked a course, they left a hole in the team. Some left school altogether.

Word the district is abandoning the yearlong pass-to-play eligibility policy is getting a thumbs up from Latorre, fellow athletes and coaches who lobbied for the change. In its place, the school board approved a new policy that will require student-athletes to get tutoring if they fall below a 2.4 grade-point average in any core academic course.

“It shows they really care about student-athletes,” said Vochan Fowler, 15, quarterback on the Bassick football team.

“Instead of getting kicked out of sports, you are getting kicked into tutoring, which is the idea to get them help,” said board member David Norton.

There are 1,500 student-athletes in the city. It is unknown how many were not able to play this year because of the pass-to-play rule. But officials said the policy was hard on the students.

“It’s heartbreaking to tell these kids they can’t play,” said James Denton, the district’s athletic director.

Under Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference requirements, a student must pass any four courses in the preceding year to remain eligible to play sports. More than a year ago, the district’s elected school board approved a policy that required students to pass four core courses — meaning English, math, social studies or science — with at least a grade of 2.6 in order to play. The idea was to motivate students to do better in school.

As a result, however, a number of student-athletes found themselves unable to play this fall. They went to the state-appointed board, and the board added an appeals process to the policy. It was quickly concluded it wasn’t enough.

Interim School Superintendent Paul Vallas said the district isn’t lowering standards with the new policy.

“Bottom line, this is really good, smart approach to take. I think we’ll get a better result with this approach,’ he said.

Any student who gets a grade below a C-minus (2.4) in any business, English, math, science, social studies or foreign language course, will get tutoring. Grades will be checked eight times a year, including at each quarter and mid-marking period. Tutoring requirements will be determined by the building principals, according to the policy.

School board member Judy Bankowski said the tutoring is not expected to add any significant costs to the district.

Sandra Kase, chief academic officer for the district, said the tutoring could take place during the school day or after school, depending on the subject and school schedules. If tutoring takes place after school, the district will pay tutors at an hourly rate. The students would have to remain in tutoring until they pass their subject.

Derrick Lewis, who coaches football and girls basketball at Bassick, said the pass-to-play policy made a number of students ineligible to suit up this year.

“They couldn’t pass because there was no intervention piece. The services weren’t there to help them do better,” said Lewis, who is also a behavior specialist at Bassick.

Whitney Daniels, 18, a senior at Bassick who plays basketball and volleyball, said she wasn’t prepared for high school work when she arrived as a freshman. She ended up flunking English, so she had to sit out the season and not play.

“That made me change and want to be a better person. I got extra help and pulled through,” she said. She is not sure she could have made it without the extra help.

Lewis said most students will go to tutoring if it is available and they really want to play.

Luis Acosta, 16, a junior at Bassick who plays football, said the new rule will help not just the student, but the teams.

“I am going to be truthful,” he said. “I don’t understand why people would take their work for granted and fail, but sometimes I get caught up in things. I can be lazy or in the moment. … This rule will help the team be as good as it can be. We need people to show up. It is not fair for the team to fail because of one person.”

Chitunga Chisenga, 16, a Bassick sophomore, who said the only course he ever flunked was art, agreed. “I always wanted to do good in school, but this rule is good because it helps motivate student-athletes to do better,” he said.

He envisions the football team huddled over books, getting tutoring together.