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Board weighs junior-high wrestling co-op, agrees to pursue policy amendment for case-by-case reviews
Summary
After parents and administrators requested to allow a junior-high wrestler from a neighboring district to participate, the board discussed policy, funding and precedent. Members asked staff to draft a case-by-case amendment for first reading at a special meeting.
The board spent an extended portion of its meeting discussing whether to permit out-of-district junior-high wrestlers to participate in its programs and how that would interact with district policy and state association rules. S6 introduced the agenda item, saying the high school superintendent, Bill Holter (S12), had asked the board to consider a cooperative arrangement.
Parents and administrators urged the board to allow a small number of junior-high wrestlers to join the district’s program so students could continue to participate. “We’re just trying to find a way to get a kid to come wrestle,” said S2, who said local parents had asked the district for help. Coach and activities representatives described the program’s history of welcoming non-district participants for some sports and cautioned that high-school-level co-ops could move the district into a larger classification with competitive and funding consequences.
Board members and administrators focused on two issues: whether the district’s extracurricular policy currently allows unenrolled students and whether permitting junior-high athletes would create an undesirable precedent. S6 noted the existing policy permits unenrolled participation only in limited cases (nonpublic or homeschool enrollment), and that a formal policy amendment requires two readings. S9 warned that a broader change could raise concerns with the Montana High School Association (MHSA) about recruitment and classification.
Rather than acting immediately, the board sought a written amendment to the extracurricular policy that would allow case-by-case exceptions for junior-high students without automatically opening all activities to non-district enrollment. S6 told the board that amending policy requires two readings and cannot be accomplished that night; members discussed special meeting options and dates. Several members signaled support for drafting a targeted amendment for first reading and expedited consideration.
The discussion concluded with direction to staff to prepare language and a timeline for board review. No formal vote was taken on policy language that night.
