(Seguin) – The Seguin ISD will not be welcoming local homeschool students to join its UIL activities.
Emily Allen, Seguin ISD’s director of communications, says the school board on Tuesday unanimously voted against the opportunity which was recently allowed by state legislation HB 547. According to that legislation, Texas school districts are allowed to invite non-enrolled homeschool students to join its programs. That opportunity, however, must independently be approved by each school district.
“Our board, the four members who were in attendance voted unanimously to not allow non-enrolled students to represent the district in UIL sponsored activities. That is almost the motion verbatim and what that means specifically is that we will not be opening up our UIL activities to students who are not fully enrolled in our district at this time. As for whether it will be revisited, I don’t believe that was the intention, but I can’t say for sure,” said Allen.
Among those helping the school board determine whether the benefits outweigh the potential challenges of allowing homeschoolers to participate in Seguin ISD activities was Athletic Director Craig Dailey. In his presentation, Dailey highlighted the financial concerns of saying yes. He says the funding allocation only includes $1,500 per UIL activity. He says this is regardless of the number of participating homeschool students. He adds that the administrative cost “of managing multiple non-enrolled students will likely outweigh the financial benefit. In addition, he questioned possible issues with maintaining academic integrity. He stated, this “could compromise the high academic standards and fairness” that they uphold for all students.”
Trustee Josh Bright made the motion not to move forward with the idea. Bright says his decision was based on current staffing, the administrative costs, and the time it would take to manage these additional students.
“Extra-curricular was extra-curricular before school or after school. Almost all of our programs, except for like two of all of our UIL programs – there’s a lot more than just sports and fine arts — have a class associated with it and that’s the biggest thing. It just doesn’t do justice to that student, to their experience and their learning and their education,” said Bright.
Following the vote, Board President Alejandro Guerra stressed the importance and variation of UIL activities for those who choose public education.
“As a parent or guardian, you have choices on how to provide the appropriate education for your children. Some of those choices include public education or homeschooling. Both choices have unique activities. The Seguin ISD offers UIL activities that often yield positive outcomes which extend beyond high school graduation. Most of our UIL programs have received regional, state and national recognition. We feel that the current academics offered by our district play a vital role that complements these recognitions. We welcome all Seguin ISD students to take advantage of all the UIL activities that we offer by enrolling. In addition to our UIL activities, our district also offers other great programs such as CTE and Early College High School,” said Guerra.
Despite the item coming before the board, there didn’t appear to be an overwhelming request for homeschool participation. That’s at least according to Trustee Denise Crettenden who didn’t have many public requests.
There is currently only 37 Texas ISDs that are not charter schools participating out of over 1,000 districts in the state. There is also no other District 13 5A or District 27 5A allowing homeschool participants. The closest school district to participate is the Lockhart ISD.