A general rule of thumb for students planning to attend college is that all freshman, sophomore, and junior students should plan to take at least 6 classes each semester. All seniors that are on track for meeting their graduation requirements can decrease the total number of courses each semester due to the demands of other requirements such as college and scholarship applications, but should still plan to take at least 5 classes each semester.
It is important though to remember that 5 classes is the minimum required in order to be considered a Full Time student and is what is required for all WKHS students. Don't forget - being full time is critical for a wide range of reasons - insurance, child support, good driver discounts, etc.
If students are behind on earning their credits, then it may be necessary to plan on taking more classes during a semester or the year. In order to progress forward with your class, all freshman students must earn at least 5.0 credits to be classified as a sophomore. All sophomore students must earn at least 10.0 credits to be classified as a junior. And, to be classified as a senior, students must earn at least 15.0 credits. (Remember, most students will graduate with more than the 20 credits required!)
Also, please be sure that you double check and make sure you are taking enough classes to be eligible to participate in athletics and other co-curricular activities. (Remember, any school sponsored activity that involves competition requires you to be eligible. So this includes band, choir groups, Mock Trial, In the Know, Dance Team, etc.)
In order to be eligible you must PASS at least 5 of the half credit courses each quarter. If you are signing up to take a Wellness for Life course, you need to remember that these classes are only worth .25 credits so they do not count in the courses needed for co-curricular eligibility.
If you have questions about eligibility, please stop in the co-curricular office or to see me for additional clarification.
Somewhat related to eligibility - the PE waiver provides the opportunity for students to waive having PE as a required class for graduation. This option is available to students participating in high school athletics including cheerleading and marching band. (For ease of explaining and writing this, when I refer to sports or athletics throughout this post, please know that it also includes marching band.) All students must still earn the full 20 credits to graduate from high school, this waiver would simply mean that what has typically been required (1/2 credit of Physical Education) would not need to be included in the 20 credits earned.
The option to utilize a PE waiver is open to any current student (as well as all future, incoming Kilbourne students). Please be aware that athletic participation during your senior year does not count toward the waiver.
In order to utilize the waiver, students must successfully complete two full seasons of athletics. This can be 2 different sports in one year, it could be 1 sport over two years, or even 1 sport one year and another sport the other year. So, for example, if I participate in both football and basketball in the same year, I could apply for the waiver. If I participate in football as a sophomore and again as a junior, I could apply for the waiver. If I participate in football as a sophomore and track as a junior, I could apply for the waiver.
In order to have your sport counted as one which can be used for the waiver, it must be an approved high school sport. This means that your club sport participation, like club soccer or club volleyball, is not included in the waiver eligibility. Also, dance team and the competition cheer team are all club teams and not high school sponsored athletics and so they are not eligible for the waiver option. Additionally, team managers and statisticians cannot count their involvement as a season toward the waiver.
Students must complete a "full season" in order to have the sport count which is considered from the first practice through the last event or banquet. If a student is "cut" from a team, quits, or has an athletic/ activity code violation which requires them to forfeit 50% or more of the season, then that season would not be able to be used to meet the two-season requirement. If you were to get hurt, the injury will not eliminate the option of having the season count if the principal, coach and athletic director concede that the student actively participated and made contributions in spite of the injury.
Many students asked if it could be a partial waiver because they had already completed one of the PE required courses and would only have 1 season of sport eligibility and the answer is no, there is no ability to mix and match. If you have already completed a PE course, you can still utilize the waiver to eliminate PE as a required course, but you must complete 2 seasons of sports in order to apply for the waiver. The bottom line is that 0 seasons of sports = needs PE/ doesn't meet the waiver eligibility requirement, 1 season of sport = needs PE/ doesn't meet the waiver eligibility requirement, and 2 seasons of sports = meets the waiver eligibility requirement and therefore doesn't need PE classes.
The district has developed a system to track your athletic participation automatically and that happens at the end of each school year. Even though it should catch your sports automatically, it never hurts to double check at the end of the year to make sure your waiver appears on your transcript.
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