NEWS
from
Durango School District 9-R
Release Date: May 13, 2006
Durango High School students who participate in extracurricular activities, their coaches, and sponsors will be expected to align their behavior with the “six pillars of character” – trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and good citizenship – as part of a new code of conduct unveiled last Wednesday at a meeting of 40 parents, students, and coaches.
The new code, called “Pursuing Victory with Honor,” expands greatly upon the current student activities code, and for the first time in the high school’s history, defines explicitly and in writing the high school’s behavior expectations for coaches and sponsors. The code was one of several new practices that DHS Principal Greg Spradling said the high school athletics and activities program will adopt in response to last winter’s parent concerns about coach and student conduct during games and other issues.
“Parents raised serious and valid concerns about our athletic program, and their willingness to work with us to review and improve our practices has resulted in clearer expectations for everyone involved,” said Spradling, who formed a new Parent Athletic Advisory Committee to provide a permanent avenue of communication between parents, coaches, and administrators.
The new conduct code aligns expectations with Durango School District 9-R’s Character Counts behavior curriculum that’s taught in elementary and middle schools. The curriculum emphasizes development of essential life skills and the core ethical values of trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and good citizenship. “The highest potential of sports,” according to the new code, “is achieved when teacher-coaches consciously teach, enforce, advocate, and model these values and are committed to the ideal of pursuing victory with honor.”
Although each sports team previously developed its own handbook and followed Colorado High School Athletic Activities Association rules, the new activities code standardizes behavior expectations for all sports and aligns team rules, regulations, and consequences more closely with the district’s existing student conduct code. The student conduct code applies to general classroom and school behavior.
In addition to the conduct code, the athletic and activities program adopted a consistent system for observing and evaluating coaches, including a parent and student survey, and created a formal complaint procedure aligned with the district’s complaint procedure for teachers and administrators. The new procedure encourages parents to meet first with the coach to resolve the complaint before speaking with a supervisor. If parents are concerned the coach may respond to their complaint by retaliating against their student, parents may take their concerns directly to the activities director, who will then attempt to resolve the issue within 10 days. Formal written complaint and appeal procedures also are included.
Coaches and sponsors will be required to sign and adhere to the code of conduct as a condition of employment. A statement of responsibilities that includes compliance with the conduct code has been included on the coach/sponsor personnel action form – the district’s version of an employment “contract.”
Spradling credited PAAC members for their proactive and collaborative approach toward solving the problems they had identified with the athletic program. “Parents, coaches, and administrators all played an important role to improve how and what we do,” he said.
The PAAC, for example, developed the survey that will be administered to parents and students after each sports season. Coaches worked with Fort Lewis College Assistant Professor of Exercise Science Jim Cross and students from his sports ethics class to review best practices in other school districts and develop the new conduct codes. And high school administrators worked with the Office of Human Resources to develop the complaint process and personnel action form.
Next year, coaches, sponsors, and high school administrators will create a professional development plan based on information they gathered from this year’s surveys, and coaches’ evaluations will include individual goals aligned with the professional development plan. The high school will modify the professional development plan annually based on survey results, complaints, and praise that may have arisen over the year.
While the athletic program now has new codes, complaint procedures, and assessments, Spradling said he expected more changes as they’re put into practice. “This has been an evolutionary process, one that has a regular review for continuous improvement. We’ve aligned our practices in the athletic program with the district’s same systematic process of assessment and evaluation that we conduct in our academic program. We’ll constantly adjust what we do to improve how we coach and mentor our students,” said Spradling.
District 9-R Superintendent Mary Barter praised the collaborative effort between parents and the school’s athletic community. “Although law and board policy define the limits of our authority to solve problems, almost all of the challenges that our school communities face can be solved quickly, creatively, and imaginatively at the school level. The collaborative effort between the PAAC, coaches, and high school administrators to develop a systematic process that will improve the athletic program’s culture and climate is a model of school-based problem-solving. Powerful and effective solutions occur when those closest to the issue work together toward a shared vision in an atmosphere of honesty and trust.”
To see copies of the new conduct codes, complaint procedures, and coaches’ personnel action forms, log onto the district web site at www.durangoschools.org.