By Jolene Farley
During their Monday meeting the Hills-Beaver Creek School Board discontinued the varsity baseball program and decided to offer only a junior varsity program in 2003.
The number of students participating in track has increased while the number in baseball has dwindled. "Baseball has kind of taken a back seat right now," said Superintendent Dave Deragisch.
Hills-Beaver Creek and Ellsworth students were polled on their interest in the sport.
"We had only one student who, without a doubt, wants to play baseball," said Deragisch.
Deragisch presented two options to the board. Either drop to the junior varsity level or go ahead with scheduled games for the 2003 season and hope to fill the team.
"He (the coach) won't go around from classroom to classroom and ask kids to play the next game," said Deragisch.
The board hopes continuing baseball with a change to the JV level will keep the program alive until more students at the varsity level want to play. Students in Grades 7 through 12 will be allowed to play at the junior varsity level.
Schools with games scheduled against Hills-Beaver Creek will be contacted and asked if they are willing to play H-BC at the JV level.
In other school
business Monday,
Deragisch said he is enforcing the dress code at Hills-Beaver Creek. "I talked about it over the PA (public address) system, what I expected," he said. "I tell kids 'You never see my bellybutton; I don't want to see yours.'"
The board approved an eight-day student trip to Costa Rica, Central America, in June 2003. Students must complete either a Spanish or science course to be eligible for the trip.
The 22 students who have signed up are planning fund-raisers to pay for the trip. "Some of them may never have the opportunity to do that again," said board member Matt Larson.
On May 22 a speaker sponsored by the Rock County Collaborative will speak to seventh- through 11th-grade students on cliques, recognizing differences and the evils of alcohol, tobacco and drugs.
Sixth-grade orientation is planned for May 28. Sixth-graders will trade places with seventh-graders for a day. Students will meet all their teachers for the upcoming year and become familiar with the high school.