Athletics set the tone of the Lincoln County Board of Educationmeeting Monday at Enterprise Attendance Center.

The board’s first order of business was to hear a complaintlodged against the cheerleading program at West Lincoln AttendanceCenter by four parents.

“We’ve tried every way we knew how to resolve this before comingto the school board. We’re not trying to be troublemakers,” saidone of the concerned parents, who was chosen as spokesperson forthe group. The parent refused to give her name to the newspaper,and school board officials, at the parent’s request, would notreveal her name either.

The spokesperson is the mother of one of the girls in thecheerleading program.

She said after making contact with the other schools, shelearned the West Lincoln program is completely different from anyof the others.

It’s not sponsored by the school, she said, and the parents payfor everything. Despite that, she said, it is also the strictestprogram.

The cheerleader sponsor recently sent a letter home to parentsstating that cheerleaders must maintain at least a C grade in allsubjects to remain with the program.

Other schools, she said, follow the same guidelines as sportsteams or the Mississippi High School Athletics Associationguidelines. Those guidelines state that a student must maintain apassing grade in at least five of their seven subject areas inorder to remain in the program.

The spokesperson said when she asked the sponsor to considerfollowing the same guidelines, the sponsor was adamant about the Caverage, but agreed to look into it.

The next form the parents received, she said, stated the MHSAAstandards would be observed, but a student who did not carry a Caverage in all subjects would not be allowed to perform.

“It’s so unfair for them to single out the cheerleaders when theparents pay for everything. (Cheerleaders) should be held to thesame standards as everyone else,” the spokesperson said. “(Theadministration) wants them to quit.”

“This is what my child wants to do,” she continued. “She isnormally on the honor roll, but she has one subject she isstruggling with right now.”

Under the rules sent home with the second letter, at least sixcheerleaders would be unable to perform, she said.

Board members told the parents they could not answer them rightaway because they needed to review the policy, but promised to makea decision soon.

Later in the meeting, when the board went into executive sessionto discuss personnel, they emerged from the session with a decisionon West Lincoln’s cheerleading program.

The board elected to declare all school cheerleading programs asa sport and, therefore, they would fall under the MHSAAguidelines.

The decision to cast cheerleading as a sport affected theprogram in another way as well.

Between the parents’ complaints and the executive session, theboard had agreed to create the position of athletic director ateach of the schools. With the cheerleading program now beingdeclared a sport, it would also fall under the umbrella of theathletic director.

The athletic director position will not require hiring newemployees. The AD’s duties are in addition to any teaching orcoaching already done by the person selected. The salary was set at$1,500, in addition to any teaching salary and coachingsupplement.

The duties of the AD include checking students eligibility forsports; liaison with the MHSAA; setting up physicals for allathletes and maintaining those records; supervising all coaches;checking on officials prior to each athletic contest and insuringsecurity at the same; assisting the principal in setting up ticketgates at the games; and any other duties assigned by theprincipal.

Traditionally, these duties were performed by the principal atmost of the county schools.

Board members were meeting at Enterprise as part of their annualtour and inspection of schools. Their next meeting will be at 10a.m. March 3 at West Lincoln.