The School Board learned about proposed updates to the county’s current extracurricular policies tonight at the March 4 meeting.
Led by ACPS Educational Equity Data Scientist Russell Carlock, a team has been working since December to develop a revised and more detailed policy for clubs.
The proposed revisions largely center around clarifying the difference between co-curricular and non-curricular groups and establishing a firm procedure for what these clubs can and cannot do.
The addendum defines co-curricular clubs as having topics regularly offered through a class, relating directly to overall academic curriculum or being offered for course credit or as a mandatory part of a course. Clubs such as Junior Classical League (Latin), HOSA (health sciences) or No Fella a Capella (choir) would meet this criteria.
It also defines non-curricular clubs as being extracurricular activities that are “initiated by students with recreational, community, religious, political, or other interests that are not part of the school curriculum.”
These non-curricular clubs must also be led by students rather than teachers and funding must come from students rather than teachers or the school. Additionally, meetings must be open to all students and cannot have an “unlawful purpose.” Non-curricular clubs would include groups like Catch Me If You Can Club (juggling) and Key Club (service), as well as “identify groups” such as the Black Student Union, Gender Sexuality Alliance, Muslim Student Association, Club America or the Young Democrats.
However, the most notable change proposed in the addendum is a ban on non-curricular clubs hosting in-person guest speakers during school hours. For speakers outside of the school day, these clubs would need to get permission from their school’s principal.
The proposed revision would also strengthen and codify the approval process for new clubs. The language of the addendum states that “all new student organizations must submit to the principal or designee an application for approval that includes a constitution describing the purpose, type (co or non-curricular), activities, membership or fee requirements (if any), outside group affiliations (if any), and staff sponsor or monitor of the group.” It also states that the applications would be judged by compliance with school board policies and a minimum level of students interested may be considered as well.
Finally, the addendum would also tighten fundraising guidelines for clubs.
The Board will not vote on the proposed changes tonight. Currently, the vote is scheduled for the March 12 meeting.
