Academics come first.

There are many school activities in which a student can participate here at St. Joseph High School. There are sport activities, speech and debate, cheerleading, etc; and the student is free to participate in any activity or activities that he or she chooses.

I believe, however, that the first and foremost priority of a student should be to learn. Therefore, whereas I encourage students to participate in extra-curricular activities, I believe that this participation should never be at the expense of learning.

This means that I expect the students to maintain high academic standards regardless of other activities in which they may be involved. Accordingly, whereas reasonable exceptions will be made to accommodate school sponsored activities, no academic requirements will be waived due to conflict with extra-curricular activities.

For example, suppose a quiz is scheduled for a class that meets at 2:15 PM on a Friday. A particular student plays football and the team has a game out of town that requires them to leave campus at noon that day. I will, of course, reschedule the quiz for that student, but he must take the quiz during the next class day after the game.

On the other hand, if a quiz is scheduled for Friday morning, the fact that a student could not study for the test because he had to practice football too hard on Thursday afternoon and was so tired afterwards that could not study for the test that night, will not be considered a valid excuse. The student will have to take the test as scheduled whether he is ready or not.

To summarize: If a student is unable to keep up with both the class work and some other extra-curricular activity, the extra-curricular activity should yield to the class work and not the other way around.