The idea of imposing an athletic eligibility moratorium for high school students who transfer among Pitt County schools under open enrollment was well intended but flawed. School Board members are right to seek ways to prevent the use of open enrollment as a recruiting tool for athletics. That potential misuse alone, however, should not guide the board’s actions on this issue.
The board should be guided first by what best serves Pitt County students and the schools they attend. By that measure, the parameters of open enrollment remain flawed.
Students should be allowed to transfer under the program only from school districts where overcrowding is an issue. If the objective is to ease overcrowding, moving students between under-capacity schools will be counterproductive.
When the school board earlier this year approved J.H. Rose High School for open enrollment, the move raised concern among the county’s other six high schools, mainly over athletics. Coaches and athletics directors from the other schools voiced their concerns at the board’s meeting last month.
The main worry among the other schools is that Rose, which has a long history of fielding competitive teams, might attract athletes from those schools through open enrollment. That concern prompted a motion to impose a one-year athletic eligibility moratorium for students who transfer under open enrollment.
The motion was tabled at the May meeting and voted down 7-2 during Monday’s board meeting. That is the correct course because such a moratorium would do more harm than good by punishing the students, whether or not they are stellar athletes.
Still, the board is right to look for ways to limit the possibility of athletic recruiting via open enrollment. The board on Monday issued a stern warning for anyone who might be tempted venture down that path, but the board has overlooked another obvious flaw in the system.
Open enrollment should be an option for students in overcrowded districts only. That would limit open enrollment to students at D.H. Conley and South Central high schools.
Shifts in population and demographics are inevitable. As the population in and around Winterville continues to grow, the school board will eventually be forced to redraw district lines to alleviate overcrowding at Conley and South Central.
Open enrollment will not push that day as far into the future if it allows students to move between the four schools now under capacity.
