<p>Hi everyone! I am in the process of going through a series of meetings with faculty at my high school (private, co-ed, college-prep day school) to change the athletics policy to make it more theatre-friendly. Long story short, I would like to survey all of you, and hear about what the athletics policy is at your school, specifically if it is a private school, and more specifically how the policy deals with conflicts such as involvement in drama. The reason why I want to change the policy at my school, as well as what the current policy is, are written below, so if you just want to answer the question and move on, you don't have to read the rest of this post.</p>
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<p>My high school runs on a trimester system. We put on a musical every winter and a play every spring, and I stage manage both. The athletics policy, as it is now, states that every student has to do sports for two of the three trimesters every year. Because sports run at the same times as rehearsals, it is not possible for a student to participate in a school sport and a show. This means that, because of the policy, students have to choose to do either the musical or the play, but they cannot do both, even if they plan on going to college for theatre.</p>
<p>There are some exceptions. Once in a student's entire upper school career, the administration will allow them to count the musical or the play as an "arts intensive athletic credit," meaning that they would only have to do one other sport that year. But again, this is only allowed for one trimester. The other alternative is that a student is allowed to do an independent sport, i.e. at least four hours with an instructor every week for a trimester, playing a sport that isn't already offered at the school (I have done this in the past with fencing and Bikram yoga). If the independent sport falls in the evening (after rehearsals end at 5 or 5:30), then doing that and a fall sport would allow students to do both the play and the musical. However, there are three problems with doing an independent sport - transportation, time, and money. I just got my license this past summer, and before I had it, my mom had to leave work at odd times to drive me to my sports, which was incredibly inconvenient for her. When I did fencing, I would go straight from school to rehearsals, straight from rehearsals to fencing, and then be driven the hour and a half home, meaning that I would get back to my house and be just starting homework at about 11 at night. If I rushed through everything and leave myself some work to do the next morning before schools started, I'd have about three hours of homework, meaning that I'd go to bed at 2. I have to get up at 5:30 (I live really far away from my school). Lastly, doing any sort of sport outside of the school means extra money, which again inconveniences families and eliminates the option of doing an independent sport for some.</p>
<p>A classmate and I are proposing that people who have a strong interest in drama and want to do both the play and the musical still have a sports credit (as a compromise with the athletics department and so that they would still be getting a substantial amount of physical activity), but be exempted from the second credit.</p>
<p>Anyway, sorry for my droning for any of you who bothered to read my post in full, but I would really appreciate some answers, and if you happen to have any ideas for my school or have any points that you'd like to bring up, please feel free!</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>