By BRAD KEITH
TheFlashToday.com
STEPHENVILLE (October 18, 2016) — In a rare split vote, Stephenville ISD trustees have approved a new constitution for high school cheerleading.
The district has been trying to correct what trustees and administrators agreed were flaws in its cheer constitution, specifically in its tryout process, for more than a year, and have actually been dealing with cheerleading issues at the board level for more than 18 months. A 10-person committee worked on the new constitution, and trustee Cole Parks, who was on that committee, said even the vote to present a draft to the board for approval was not unanimous.
The newly adopted constitution indeed bears numerous changes, including a 20-person varsity cheer squad open to only juniors and seniors, an eight-person junior varsity squad only for sophomores and an eight-person ninth grade grade squad. Teacher scoring will no longer be part of the tryout process, with three outside judges now accounting for 100 percent of the scoring for both cheerleaders and mascots.
The new constitution also calls for the establishment of a pep squad, open to all high school students, explained by high school principal Stephanie Traweek as a way to increase extracurricular participation and offer another opportunity for involvement to cheerleader hopefuls not named to a squad.
The board approved the measure by a count of 4-2 during a regular monthly meeting at Bond Auditorium Monday evening. Board secretary Sherrie Evans and trustees Gary Sult, Keri Vanden Berge and Dr. Ed Dittfurth voted in favor of the new constitution, but board vice president Scott Osman and Parks would not be swayed, voting in opposition.
After the debate began to swirl in circles, Sult, following Roberts’ Rules of Order, officially called for the question, ending discussion and leading trustees to cast their votes.
Osman’s primary issue with the new constitution is the number of spots on the sub-varsity cheer teams.
“There are currently 12 eighth grade cheerleaders…so one third will be cut from eighth to ninth grade,” said Osman, concerned about there being only eight spots on the freshman cheer squad. “I don’t think we will cut one third of the boys from football from eighth to ninth grade.”
Henderson Junior High currently has 10 seventh grade cheerleaders, 12 eighth grade cheerleaders and two mascots who are also eighth graders.
Traweek, who presented the highlights of the new constitution, was joined by two committee members who each spoke briefly to the board, including one who filed a level three grievance concerning the past cheer constitution.
“I didn’t feel like we were cutting because of other opportunities to participate,” said Traweek in reference to the addition of the pep squad.
“I think we’ll have to agree to disagree,” refuted Osman. “I think you’re cutting.”
There currently is no ninth grade squad at SHS, because of a decline in the number of girls who tried out for cheerleader last spring. Osman says that in the past the junior varsity squad has included up to 12 members, referring to that as another cut. There are currently 21 varsity cheerleaders.
Cole took issue with the constitution applying only to Stephenville High School cheerleading and tryouts and not to Henderson Junior High. Administrators say a separate constitution will be drawn up for HJH cheerleading.
“I don’t know how we can approve something that doesn’t apply to every kid in the district,” said Parks, and that was just the beginning of his trouble with the measure.
The constitution calls for a higher level of conduct from cheerleaders than from the general student body, and while some trustees are in favor of such, Parks wants all students held to the same benchmark code of conduct.
“How can we say, we expect this group of students to behave at one level and all of our other students to behave at another?” Parks asked. “I think we should hold all our students to that higher benchmark.
“I don’t feel like this is a policy decision that is in tune with our core values. I feel like we’re just putting a patch on it and we will have more issues in the next few years,” Parks added. “I feel like nobody is taking any accountability, it’s just getting passed around. Our superintendent warned us a while back that if we step into this we’re going to go ‘round and ‘round.”
Evans was the other trustee on the cheer constitution committee and disagreed with Parks.
“Cheerleaders aren’t the only group on the high school campus held to a higher standard,” she said. “To put an additional standard of character in place, to me, enhances our core values.”
Before Sult finally called for the question, he expressed frustration that trustees were still involved in the cheerleading debate, and Evans and Dittfurth joined him in encouraging others to approve the constitution even if it needs to be addressed again soon.
“I feel like we have asked the committee to come up with a way to better for the girls the tryout system,” said Evans. “We need to honor that committee and probably approve this.”
Dittfurth agreed with Evans on that point, saying, “Let’s consider approving this and allowing it to be fluid.”
Some of the details of the new constitution include an increase from two sponsors to three – one for each high school squad – and the district providing cheer uniforms with parents providing other materials such as pom-poms, megaphones and more. Traweek said tryouts will be rescheduled in the event one of the three judges is unable to make it. Due to inclement weather, one judge did not make it last year, and tryouts moved forward with two judges instead of three.
The mascot tryouts, like the cheerleading tryouts, will rely 100 percent on the scoring of outside judges with no input from SHS teachers and staff. The judges will have the opportunity to issue call backs to have one or more cheerleading or mascot candidate perform again in the case of discrepancies or especially tight scoring.
Osman noticed that a third judge was not specified in the wording of the draft of the constitution presented to trustees, but Traweek says it will be in the final draft. She mentioned other changes, including the mailing of judges’ score sheets to candidates the day following the tryouts.
Judges will award a maximum of 45 points, broken into various categories. Traweek said the scoring system is based on the recommendation of two community members who own local cheer and tumbling gyms.
The demerit system for cheerleaders’ conduct is very specific, Traweek said, and while some minor demerits can be worked off, misconduct worth three or more immediate demerits can not be worked off.
The pep squad will assist cheerleaders by making posters, helping with cheers and more. It was not immediately discussed if transportation will be provided for pep squad members to attend relevant competitions.
Texas now has cheer competitions, but Traweek says current high school cheerleaders want to pass on competing this year and instead high school representatives will attend competitions and learn what is expected to better compete in the future.
Parks took issue with this, as well, saying he believes competition to be good for student development. With Osman abstaining because his daughter is a varsity cheerleader, Parks made a motion to approve participating in cheer competitions only to see it die for lack of a second.
There were a couple of issues that I don’t see addressed in this article.. specifically, how injury or illness around the time of the tryouts would be handled, and whether a good student, who had been a cheerleader every year since the 7th grade, should be excluded from the squad their Senior year. There should be a provision for Seniors, who were cheerleaders as Juniors, to be named to the squad even if their scores fall below the judges mark. There would probably never be more than 1 or 2 people affected by that rule, and it seems (to me) that it would be the “right” thing to do.
Ms. Garrison never complained the 6 years her daughter made the minimum 80 points. The year she doesn’t she says the system failed the girls. The system did not fail the girls. This mother did. Her daughter did not meet the requirements. Sounds like the daughter or mother also do not have the character and maturity to represent SHS as a cheerleader. Better she learn rules apply to all in school so she can function in life.