BOE votes to retain
amended 2.0 rule

The standard will stay,
but students below it will be
allowed to practice

By Pat Bigold
Star-Bulletin

The 2.0 rule for eligibility in sports and other co-curricular activities was retained on an 11-2 roll call vote just after midnight by the Hawaii Board of Education this morning.

The board, which heard two-and-a-half hours of testimony on the issue, made only one change in the policy, which dates back to 1985. That was to allow students falling short of a 2.0 grade point average to try out and practice with their teams.

Dr. John Mike Compton and Lex Brodie voted against the policy, which will take effect this school year.

Voting in favor were Chairwoman Karen Knudsen, Kelly King, Denise Matsumoto, Francis McMillen, Ron Nakano, Dr. Mitsugi Nakashima, Noemi Pendleton, Keith Sakata, Winston Sakurai, Garrett Toguchi and Herbert Watanabe.

The Department of Education was instructed to develop guidelines for implementing the amended policy. This will include devising a way to apply the "practice" provision to nonsports activities.

The DOE must also keep data on how well it is working and report back to the board annually.

A major criticism throughout the 2.0 debate this summer has been the unavailability of data to determine whether the policy has been effective.

Before today's vote, only students on academic probation who maintained at least a 1.6 GPA were allowed to practice. The probation exemption could be used only twice in a high school career. Under the amended policy, which was proposed by Sakurai, there will be no GPA requirement for practice. Nor will there be a limit on how many times a student can participate in practice under these circumstances.

Compton carried into the meeting a proposal to scrap the 2.0 criteria. In its place, he favored the minimum GPA required for graduation (0.8), good attendance, completion of homework assignments and good citizenship.

Compton, seeing he did not have enough votes to abolish the 2.0., then supported Sakurai's original proposal, which included a waiver of the 2.0 standard for incoming freshmen.

Sakurai eventually agreed to drop that provision.

But Compton, calling the 2.0 rule the "most important issue" of his time on the board, continued advocating the freshman waiver. He was joined by Keith Sakata, who said it was critical to give freshmen a taste of what it's like to be a part of a team.

The waiver was deleted on an 8-5 roll-call vote.

Unrelenting arguments in support of the ill-fated waiver and disputes over parliamentary procedure helped push the key vote beyond midnight.

"I didn't want to see the 2.0 go, but I think there's enough consensus about the participation and letting there be more flexibility with the superintendent in terms of how he can adjust to make sure people get to the 2.0," said BOE chairwoman Karen Knudsen.

Knudsen said data collection should be easier now. "Now we finally have the computer systems in place where we can track students a little bit more in terms of achievements."

Waipahu High's Keith Morioka, one of nine athletic directors who attended the meeting, said he was happy with the change that allows students to practice.

"Now it's up to the superintendent to work on the guidelines and it's incumbent upon the coaches and the schools to work it out so that these kids can be eligible to play," Morioka said.

McKinley High AD Neal Takamori fielded the most questions from board members -- seven -- after he cited the effect the 2.0 had on four of his students.

Takamori said one potential dropout who had the opportunity to work with Tigers head football coach David Tanuvasa, is now on a college football scholarship. Three others who were ineligible due to the 2.0 rule became gang members and are all now in prison -- one on murder charges.

Leilehua AD Norman Minehira, who voiced the ADs' support of the Sakurai proposal, said that studies have shown that students who spend five to 19 hours in co-curricular activities each week are less likely to use drugs or drop out of school.

Roosevelt teacher Peter Tali Coleman favored completely abolishing the 2.0 rule, saying he was very concerned that many of his fellow Samoans are "falling through the cracks" in the Hawaii system.

Coleman cited his trips to New Zealand where there is no such standard yet Samoan students excel in the classroom.