School Board Members Disagree on Middle Schoolers at Varsity Level

Opinions differed in a discussion over bringing middle schoolers to the varsity sports level between Babylon Board of Education members held during the last board meeting on Monday evening.

The discussion was sparked by a suggestion brought up earlier in the year to tweak the rules that concern bringing middle schoolers up to the varsity sports level, due in part that the current system violates the district's athletic guidelines, board member Alena Berenblatt said.

The current policy allows for the varsity teams to call up "rare and exceptional athletes" that meet certain academic and athletic guidelines. Teams, however, have called up more and more students, including some 22 students for a girls' team during the 2012-2013 year.

Berenblatt looked to her fellow board members for opinions on the matter.

"I think we need a full review of the guideline document you referenced," board president Roger Katz said. "I think the policy... a lot, I don’t know about it. The rules are dependent on the sport and the season. We need to make sure its sport to sport – that detail needs to be there. Tryouts have to be open to everyone."

"I think we don't have a policy problem, we have a management problem," said board member Dominic Bencivenga. "One set of rules about the rare and exceptional athlete. Fairness and opportunity for the kids. We need to keep it in line. "

Board member Gregory Antolini kidded the board might not want his opinion, especially since he said he felt very strongly about the whole situation.

"The fact we're discussing this again is a joke. The decision we made was to not affect 22, but were affecting these six," he said, referencing an earlier decision to not affect some children already invited to join a team back in February, but had already occurred again this June. "We kicked it down the road... it's never going to be fair."

Board member Ann Donaldson agreed with Antolini.

"It's a very difficult situation," she said. "We did kick it down the road... We need to hold ourselves accountable on this. Then not doing anything is on us."

The idea of roster cuts was also brought up, sparking further debate.

"It's about filling a roster. This is life. This stuff [cuts] happens in other schools," said board member Dominick Montalto. "You'll never have a perfect policy and it'll never be figured out correctly. It can never work. They should have had cuts."

Katz closed out the discussion, which lasted nearly 30 minutes, by noting the board needed a future meeting soon with the district athletic director and coaches to get a better view on the situation.