Should homeschoolers get to play high school sports?

Jan. 30—Homeschool students have historically been barred from participating in athletics at Pisgah or Tuscola high schools, but that could soon change.

Haywood County's Board of Education has been debating whether to allow homeschool students to participate in team sports at Pisgah and Tuscola for several months. The school system regularly fields requests from homeschool parents who want their kids to play on high school teams despite not attending brick-and-mortar schools. The answer has always been 'no.'

Given the rise in homeschooling, however, coupled with a decline of students in public schools, the school board has given the policy and its potential impacts a place at the table.

Haywood County Schools has 500 fewer students now than it did before the pandemic just three years ago, and many of those students were lost to homeschooling.

The drop in student population has taken a toll on the school system's budget, too, as both state and county funding is based on head count known as "average daily membership," the average number of students enrolled each day over a specific time period.

The loss of students, and the resulting loss in funding, even forced the school system to eliminate teaching positions and make other budget cuts over the past year.

Homeschool students who play on high school sports teams can only do so if enrolled as a part-tine student, per state athletic association rules. That means they would counted toward the school's student population, and in turn mean more funding.

Who gets to play?

Associate Superintendent Graham Haynes said the school board's policy committee has been on the fence about allowing homeschool students in sports for several reasons.

"Overall, I do feel the policy committee would be fine with allowing homeschool students to participate in sports, but the recurring worry was, 'What do you do with allowing early college or Central Haywood students if homeschool students are allowed to participate?'" Haynes told the school board at work session meeting in January.

When Haywood Early College was formed, students had the opportunity to form their own sports teams, but the emphasis was placed on academic rigor, said Haywood County Schools Superintendent Trevor Putnam.

"That has evolved over time," Putnam said. "It's evolved into not only achieving a high school diploma but an associate's degree in five years. The intense amount of academic work that exists at Haywood Early College is why sports have never been integrated."

School Board Chairman Chuck Francis remembers the debate about Haywood Early College sports.

"We wanted those kids to concentrate on academics," Francis said. "I'm more willing to accept homeschoolers than early college students just based on the academic piece."

However, School Board Member Steven Kirkpatrick said if they allow homeschoolers, then they have to allow students at the Haywood Early College or Central Haywood, too.

"We are punishing them not to let them play sports because we're worried about numbers," he said. "I would have to disagree with any of it if we're not letting all of them come."

School Board Member Jimmy Rogers disagreed with Kirkpatrick, noting that Early College students chose to attend that school knowing sports wouldn't be an option.

"They chose that path because they saw that they could better themselves," Rogers said. "We weren't letting homeschoolers before, but we can let them do it now. They were picking education over sports. But now, if they have the chance, they can pick both."

Clark said he doesn't think it's a punishment.

"I think those kids chose," Clark said. "I'm 100% on the homeschoolers. I'm not sure about Central Haywood, and I'd like to have some more debate about that."

In-person classes

If homeschool students were allowed to participate in sports, the North Carolina High School Athletic Association requires students playing for a school team to at least be part-time students. That means homeschoolers would have to enroll in at least a half day of school.

With high schools on the semester "block" schedule — meaning students take four classes each semester that pack a full year of instruction — homeschoolers would have to take two classes each semester to count as a part-time student.

"We could decide what those two classes were," Haynes said. "We would have to put in some stipulations."

Which school they attend would be based on where they live, just like with the general student population. Homeschool students in Waynesville would attend Tuscola, and so on.

Whether those classes would have to be in-person or online is up to the school board. Many upperclassmen, especially seniors, take a number of classes at HCC or online.

School Board Member Marla Morris doesn't want to punish homeschool students by making them take in-person classes when current Pisgah or Tuscola students don't.

"I had a daughter who took all of her classes at the college. How can we allow that to happen but tell the homeschoolers they have to take them on campus? I don't think that is the right policy," Morris said.

School Board Member Jimmy Rogers believes in-person classes are best for homeschool students.

"They should take classes on campus so those kids are in our schools, and they get to intermingle with the regular students," Rogers said.

School Board Member Larry Henson agreed.

"I think that's the collaboration part the student needs," he said. "They have been homeschool and need to get acclimated with the students they're going to play with, whether it be weights or regular subjects."

School Board Member Jim Harley Francis' daughter is a senior taking many of her classes at HCC and said it's been hard for her to stay involved.

"She's on campus very little but still participates in cheer. It has been hard for her to keep up with everything going on campus because she's at HCC," he said.

Reclassification

One big drawback to allowing any students — homeschool, Early College or other — to play sports at Pisgah or Tuscola is that it could impact sports conference classification, which is based on a school's head count. Both schools are currently in the 3A conference based on their size, but if enrollment goes up, they could be bumped into the more competitive 4A category.

Adding a couple dozen homeschool and Early College students to Pisgah or Tuscola's ranks likely wouldn't make a difference, but that's not how it would work.

If even a single Early College student participates in sports at a public high school, then the entire population of the Early College for that school district would be added to the number that determines classification.

Tuscola currently has 908 students and Pisgah has 912 students. If one Early College student participates in sports, the 175 total Early College students would be added to Pisgah and Tuscola, depending on which school district those students live in the county. The same goes for the 70 Central Haywood students.

"The minute we make Haywood Early College students eligible, they will all be counted, even if only a single kid chooses to participate in athletics," Putnam said.

Haynes added that reclassification was another worry of the policy committee.

"If the ADM goes up and reclassification time comes around, we would potentially be in a different conference," Haynes said.

Currently, both Pisgah and Tuscola are in the Mountain 7 A Conference, but up until 2021, Tuscola was in a higher 3A/4A Conference. Many fans saw Tuscola as "outmanned" against larger schools in the Asheville area.

"We just fought that for two years and got Tuscola back in the conference it should be in with its peer schools," said Haywood County School Board Attorney Pat Smathers. "We fought the good fight, and we won."

Putnam added that realignment occurs every two to four years.

"You can't base it on your numbers right now because you don't know what the realignment will look like. It'll change every two or four years," Putnam said.

Board Member Ronnie Clark noted that Tuscola or Pisgah's classification could change regardless of the school board's decision on homeschool or early college students.

"So we're basing on something that may or may not happen," Clark said.

Putnam said Haywood County Early College Principal Lori Fox advocates for her students to be allowed to play sports, as he would expect any principal to do.

Clark believes the school system is missing out on a prime opportunity to draw kids back to public schools.

"[Early College] students are allowed to play at the charter school," Clark said. "So our students are playing at the charter school because we're not allowing them to play with us because we may or may not change conference. We're basing everything on football."

Shining Rock Classical Academy, the county's only charter school, has allowed homeschool students, private school students and Early College students to participate in its sports programs since September 2022.

What's next?

Putnam told the school board that they have a lot of latitude when designing any policy regarding the expansion of sports eligibility. The board could accept only homeschool students, add in current HCS students at the Early College or Central Haywood High School or allow students to participate, regardless of enrollment.

There are state board of education policies based on the NCHSAA rules that Haywood County Schools could adopt, Haynes added.

"If the board decides to allow homeschool students to participate, the policy committee could take the existing policy and tweak it to their liking," Haynes said.

Right now, one problem is that it's unknown how many homeschool or Early College students would want to participate in sports.

"I'm only aware of about six to eight families that have reached out," Putnam said.

School Board Member Jim Harley Francis asked Putnam if they could complete a survey to see how many kids are interested in playing sports.

"Are we talking 10 homeschoolers and six kids from the Early College? Because that is going to play a big part in the decision, as well," Jim Harley Francis said.

Henson said he feels like he's in the dark without numbers.

"We don't know what they want. It'd be nice to know how many want to play sports and what they'd like to play," he said. "I'd hate to have this kind of discussion and debate over one kid."

Putnam said it doesn't hurt to consider that information, but issued a warning.

"You wouldn't want to base a decision on what a survey told you about this group of students because that could change drastically. Whatever results you get, they'll be different each time you do it," Putnam said. "Good policy holds regardless of the dynamics."

Multiple school board members said they would like to hear from school principals at the next school board work session on Thursday, Feb. 9.

Putnam agreed with the idea, and said he would arrange it.

"Move slow on this because it has lots of impacts," Putnam said. "I'm certainly not wanting to delay anyone from participating, but I want you to feel like you have every bit of information you need before reaching a policy decision that is this important."