Participating in extracurricular activities as a student is a privilege and a very demanding one at that. Most extracurricular activities have highly involved and time-consuming practice and competition schedules; however, research does show that extracurricular activities are an integral part of the educational curriculum and experience. Benefits of participating in extracurricular activities include learning about time management and prioritizing things; building character; making contributions to one’s team allowing the student to grow as a person; raising one’s self-esteem; building relationship skills; learning a work ethic; gaining self-discipline to name a few benefits. Research also shows that increasing student involvement can translate into improved academic performance as well as provide a training field for future leaders.

While there are many excellent benefits to participating in extracurricular activities for a student, one must consider how much is too much. Getting involved in a few different activities can be a great choice, and is definitely beneficial, but too many activities can end up having negative effects. Students involved in too many activities often end up having academic problems, or they may not get the rest and recreation that they need.

The West Fork School Board and Administration strongly encourage parents to allow their teens to participate in extracurricular activities if they want to get involved. At the same time, the Board and the Administration also encourage parents to talk to their teens and set some limits to participating in multiple extracurricular activities to make sure they can handle them.

The district will make every effort to afford its students the opportunity to participate in multiple activities as long as the master schedules allow students to do so; as long as the students can meet the requirements and time demands of those activities; and as long as the students maintain their academic eligibility requirements. Unfortunately, there will be numerous scenarios that will not allow or will limit students’ participation in multiple activities. One such scenario could be when two activities have overlapping seasons, which could place a student in a position to choose one competition over another. Another scenario would be a student missing multiple practice times for one activity to attend a competition in another activity.

Should a student want to participate in multiple activities that are not currently allowed, a committee made up of at least one building level administrator and the coaches/sponsors/directors affected will meet and determine if the student’s request to participate in multiple activities simultaneously will be allowed. Scenarios, like the two mentioned above, will be considered as well as any other possible conflicts. Any appeals to the committee’s decision will go directly to the Superintendent, whose decision will be considered final.

Dropping an Activity While Participating in Multiple Extracurricular Activities

If a member of a squad/team/other quits or is dismissed from one or more of their activities after the season has begun while participating in multiple extracurricular activities, he/she will not be allowed to participate in the other activity/activities until the end of the current season. Any exceptions to this rule must go before the committee mentioned in the preceding paragraph and all committee members must mutually agree. Any appeals to the committee’s decision will go directly to the Superintendent, whose decision will be considered final.