The Roslyn School District Board of Education on Thursday agreed that the high school administration should continue its athletic vacation policy, which removes student athletes from teams if they miss required practices and games during the district’s extended vacations in December and March, but recommended the policy only apply to varsity athletes.
The controversial policy had drawn disagreement between Roslyn parents who wanted more time allocated for family vacations and those who feel student athletes who miss practices and games should be penalized.
Roslyn Superintendent of Schools Dan Brenner said the board’s vote was meant as a temporary compromise as the district continues to seek a more permanent policy.
“The theory is perceived to be a middle ground for the community,” Brenner said. “There’s a segment of the community who thinks the policy is too harsh and affects family time and wishes the policy would go away, and there are certain members of the community that feel different, but there’s been a vocal cry from part of the community that the policy is Draconian in its implementation and it is our belief that our constituency needs to be heard.”
The policy still calls for three days during each vacation period on which no games or practices would be scheduled, but those in attendance expressed frustration over the severity with which the policy was enforced.
Jeff Pomerantz, who has a son about to enter high school and a daughter entering her senior year, said that during this past year’s spring break, his daughter had to attend softball practice each day to continue to prove to the coach and athletic director that she had the flu and a 103-degree fever, rather than making an excuse for being on vacation in the Bahamas.
“The question is, what are we doing?” Pomerantz said. “I think one of our goals in Roslyn should be to make sports and fitness as positive an experience as possible and make a healthy lifestyle part of our children’s futures. My daughter is very reluctant to play next year. Parents aren’t happy. The kids aren’t happy. I’m scratching my head. What on earth are we doing here?”
Lisa Bush, who has son entering his senior year and a daughter about to enter high school, said students are held to such demanding academic standards in Roslyn that even vacations don’t feel like time off.
“My daughter plays lacrosse and basketball, what does that mean for her? She’s taking all honors courses, she’s studying all year,” Bush said. “What if she makes the basketball team? What if she makes the varsity team? That means she gets zero vacations.”
Brenner said the policy’s strict enforcement is meant to limit the excuses he and Roslyn High School administrators have heard from people trying to circumvent the vacation policy.
“There is no rule that somehow there is no loophole to, and even with this rule there were people banging loopholes and it’s very, very frustrating,” Brenner said. “And at a certain point in time, you have to say, ‘I give up,’ and the truth is some people got away with things with this that you can’t challenge, but you can certainly question. So I don’t want his daughter on the field on a cold day with a 103-degree fever playing softball, I don’t want that for my daughter and I don’t want that for your daughter. Shame on us, we can’t figure that out.”
Board of Education President Meryl Waxman Ben-Levy said because the community is so divided on this issue, the entire Roslyn community has to re-evaluate the mission of its athletic program and whether it truly values competitive teams.
“We talked about the community’s values, and we said these are the rules are for our competitive athletic program that we have to take that seriously,” Waxman Ben-Levy said. “But if our community’s values incorporate many other things, then perhaps what we want is not that program. We want an athletic program, just not that athletic program, because there’s something very disingenuous about having both. You can’t be all things to all people.”
“There’s an ongoing frustration that we’ve experienced that I don’t want to be a part of, frankly,” Brenner added. “I want everybody to be nice and get along, I want kids to play sports, I want families to go on vacation, I really do, and I want the kids who can’t go on vacation who want to have an athletic season and be competitive to be competitive.”
