South Bend Common Council to discuss student athlete academic eligibility

The South Bend Community School corporation is set to potentially lower grade requirements for students who want to play sports. But some South Bend Common Council members are raising concern, saying its not a good idea for the city’s children.

As it stands now, all middle school and high school students under the SBCSC branch are required to have a minimum 2.0 g.p.a before they put on a uniform.

That’s the way it’s been for five years.

The new proposal the school corporation is looking at would lower that g.p.a requirement to 1.5 for 9th graders, 1.67 for 10th graders, and 1.85 for 11th graders. Seniors would still have to maintain a 2.0 to get on the field.

Some council members say that’s a problem.

They say the proposal fails to hold young people to the highest standards on and off the court.

So they are calling on the school corporation to have a series of outreach meetings so that members of the community can have some input and to add transparency to the process.

The new g.p.a requirement is set to be taken up by the board of trustees next Monday, August 3rd. The common council will meet Monday, July 27th to discuss it.