Colby hears discussion on Sunday practice
The Colby school board explored their stance on school extracurricular activities on Sundays and Wednesday evenings at their most recent board meeting.
A pair of community members spoke on the topic of whether extracurricular activities should be allowed on Sundays and Wednesday evenings. Wade Oehmichen, who is the current head coach of the girls varsity volleyball team, gave his thoughts on why sports and other school clubs should be allowed to meet and practice during those times. Meanwhile, Pastor James Groleau of Zion Lutheran Church in Colby, stated that he believes that these times should remain reserved for religious or family usage.
The district has currently been ruling that Sundays are off limits for school extracurriculars, with certain exceptions being made if the club has competitions or concerts on the following Monday. These exceptions must be made by athletic directors or principals, depending on the nature of the club. Additional exceptions can be made with approval of the district administrator and consistent practices, which are noted as being more than twice in a single month, must be approved by the district’s board of education. Furthermore, school extracurriculars on Wednesdays are not allowed for middle school students and high school clubs must end their activities by 5:30 p.m.
The original policy regarding Sundays was not transferred over when the district changed the entity that examines their policies. According to superintendent Steven Kolden, the policy was district specific and, because the new entity, Neola, did not have a policy that aligned with it, it was missed during the transfer. While the district has been operating as if the policy was still in place, it was noted that it should be readded and amended if the board wished for the district administration to continue following it. The fact that the school’s current rules regarding Wednesday evenings were never in the district’s policy, but were rather just administrative policy, was also brought up. It was stated that if the board believed that these rules should continue, that they be added to current district policy.
A request from Oehmichen brought the issue to the district administration’s attention. Oehmichen was seeking permission to utilize the school’s gymnasium on Sunday evenings for volleyball open gym during the summer. The head volleyball coach offered several arguments as to why the policy should be reexamined.
“The school is shutting down a portion of its resources, taking away that Sunday option because of a religious preference,” Oehmichen said. “That is very specific to a specific religion. If we want to look at case law or the Bill of Rights, you can’t pick out different religions and specify those into your rules, especially being a state run organization.”
Oehmichen noted that there are other religions in the area whose religious Sabbath days do not receive the same treatment and suggested that those days would also need to receive recognition of the same form or that the rule should be reexamined.
He noted that the community lacks the gym space that other communities may have that are open on Sundays, as well as the fact that the limited time of Wednesdays can prove to be detrimental to teams like volleyball who have many of their games on Tuesdays and Thursdays, leaving little time for correction between contests. Oehmichen also gave the board information on the policies of other area schools, stating that in interviews with six other area coaches, including ones from Abbotsford, Edgar and Cadott, other schools do not seem to have a similar restriction on Wednesday evenings and Sundays.
Groleau provided the board with reasons to keep the policy as is. He stated that the time currently reserved for religious observation and youth groups is already limited, and would be further limited by allowing school activities to creep into Sundays and Wednesday evenings.
“Everywhere I’ve been, I’ve always run a youth program and we’ve always utilized that Wednesday time,” Groleau stated. “While religious instruction is part of what we do, as we are a church, we run it for the community at large. It’s really about engaging these kids and really changing their lives. We often take in kids who are getting into trouble and we have some incredible success in getting them out of trouble.”
He noted that it is easier to run programs like this when there is a time set aside for it and that there needs to be a balance between time set aside for different aspects of students’ lives.
School board member Teri Hanson also gave her thoughts on the issue, given her own experiences as a pastor in the community.
“The religious world, whether it is Chrisitanity, Seventh- day Adventists, Judaism, whatever you want to throw out there, our world is shrinking,” she stated.
“We need to focus on balance, as was mentioned,” Hanson added. “But we also need to realize that it seems like the secular world just continues to grow while the religious world shrinks. We need to find that balance if we are going to keep our communities filled with strong young men and women focused on community life and the goals of the community.”
Another concern with allowing open gyms during Sundays was whether or not athletes would be penalized for not attending the optional practice. She and Kolden noted that while it is often stated that such open gyms are not mandatory and won’t affect an athlete’s position on a team if they choose not to attend, there is potential for such practices to not be followed.
Hanson and other board members noted that both sides had legitimate points and that further discussion and an examination of what other local school’s policies are was necessary before the readdition of the policy or any changes to it could be made. No decision was made during the meeting, with the board deciding that the issue be explored in greater detail by the policy committee.
