Scituate High School is applauded for its wide array of athletic opportunities, offering sports from the basics of soccer and football to more specialized programs such as gymnastics, swimming, and dive teams. Being a community with such a highly competitive spirit, SHS students embrace these programs with open arms, yet sometimes, their involvement can get in the way of academics.
Unfortunately, to meet their competing teams’ game or facilities schedules, student-athletes are dismissed early from school to arrive on time for out-of-town competitions.
Games or meets are usually held shortly after the school day ends, which can be problematic. SHS Athletic Director Scott Paine said varsity games are usually held around 4:00 p.m. for most sports, which means traveling teams aren’t able to have a proper warm-up period. Adding an hour-long warm-up period before games prompts a 3:00 p.m. arrival time at the opponent’s school. However, the commute must also be considered. As the distance to each school varies, teams traveling a distance typically get dismissed from class around 2:30 p.m. in the event of a game.
One sport that requires an unusually early dismissal is winter (indoor) track, as meets are held at 4:00 p.m. at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Roxbury. Depending on afternoon Boston traffic, the commute to weekday meets can exceed one hour. Junior Kathleen “Katie” Gill, a cross country, winter, and spring track team member, explained that she usually leaves “nearly an hour before school ends,” missing most of her last block of the day. However, Gill remarked, “I love it! It typically does not interfere too much with school work, which is nice.”
Paine explained that individual teams don’t have the flexibility to request later times at the Reggie Lewis Center, making an early dismissal necessary for Scituate.
Some students enjoy departing school early; however, teachers feel differently. SHS math teacher Jamie Forde explained the inconvenience of students leaving class early: “If it happened once or twice for a particular student, that’s one thing–more often than not, every single away game is an early dismissal.”
Having students constantly miss teaching time is frustrating for both students and teachers; in addition, since SHS does not have a rotating daily schedule, students generally miss the same afternoon classes.
So, should sports teams continue to be dismissed early from school? Although some students appreciate leaving school early, teachers feel frustrated. Paine emphasized the difficulties of early dismissals, saying, “They’re hard to manage.” He commented, “Moving forward, we only will dismiss if necessary.”