Will Your Grades Make the Cut? Friday, January 30, 2009 By Anne Ruuskanen Juniors Darren Adams and Raelene Blanton helping out in the office on a busy day of TAing. - Advertising Changes in the school system are happening like changes in the weather pattern. Students received a new announcement regarding their future schedules for high school.   Cameron High School students were called into the gymnasium for an assembly Friday, January 9 regarding eligibility. MSHSAA (Missouri State High School Activities Association) previously stated students were eligible to attend school activities if they were passing 6 of their 8 classes. Now the policy has been changed so a student can have no more than one F for a grade. In other words, they have to be passing 7 of their 8 classes.    "Eligibility affects activities such as sports, dances, homecoming, prom, and contests or competitions," Language Arts Teacher Ms. Anthuis said. Contests such as Speech and Debate, Choir, and agricultural competitions will also be affected.   Sophomore Tori Shusky said, "I've always had good grades in school because it comes easy to me, but I still make sure that none of my grades fall." Tori is a player on the girls soccer team and has to be careful about her grades. Like soccer players, other athletes in the school have to make sure they keep their grades up in order to stay on the team.   The new policy also limits what T A(Teacher Assistant) options students can have in their Junior and Senior years. TA blocks include regular teacher's aid, library aid, and office aid. If a student takes a TA block, he or she will have to be passing all of their classes that semester. "I'm not sure if I want to take a TA block, but if I do I'd have to make sure all my grades were passing," Junior Lindsey Mattox said.   "I think some students are going to be more careful about the classes they take and about TAing for anyone. Then they will have to make sure the classes they're going to take are going to be ones that they can pass with a good grade," Tori agreed. The new policy change may also affect the classes students will want to take in the future, but it may also open up more options for them.   Some students feel the change in policy will be for the better. Ms. Anthuis said, "Hopefully the change in policy will raise the level of good grades in the school. No teachers want their students to fail and I think the policy is going to help that immensely." But there may be some students who believe the policy will do little to affect the grades. "There may be some students who don't worry as much about their grades, either because it comes easily to them or not, so they may or may not have to worry about the change. It probably won't affect every student in the school," Tori said.   Grades are checked and handed out every quarter and every semester. The eligibility policy will concern the semester after grades are handed out. So, will your grades make the cut this year?

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