The Tamaqua Area School Board discussed the fourth-quarter grading stipulations for elementary, middle and high school levels.

The presentation said, “Tamaqua Area High School and Middle School administration has created a grading plan for the fourth quarter of the 2019-2020 school year. The grading plan was developed after consulting with the administration team, faculty and other school districts.

“We believe that we have developed a fair grading system that will represent the students who had the ability to continue their learning and thrive in the new learning environment, students who struggled with the new learning environment and students who had hardships that prevented them from fully engaging in the new learning environment.”

High school and middle school grades

The board’s presentation noted, “We will grade the fourth quarter and final exams as we would during a traditional academic year with the following stipulations.”

Any student who participated in at least 50 percent of learning cannot receive a grade lower than a 70 percent.

Any student who participated less than 50 percent of learning cannot get a grade lower than 60 percent for the fourth quarter.

Due to the change in learning environment, no ESL or special education student can get lower than a 70 percent for the fourth quarter.

If a high school student does not participate in the final exam, they receive a 69 percent.

Fourth quarter GPA, career GPA and career credits will be calculated as status quo.

Elementary school grades

Only core subjects will be graded (math, reading/language arts, science and social studies).

Any student who participated in at least 70 percent of the learning in their core subjects will receive a Satisfactory grade.

Any student who participated in less than 70 percent of learning in their core subjects will receive an Unsatisfactory grade.

Due to the change in learning environment, no ESL or special education student can receive an Unsatisfactory grade.

Final grades will be an average of the three quarters. The fourth quarter grade will not prevent any student from promoting to the next grade level. The fourth quarter grade can only enhance a student’s final grade for the 2019-20 school year.

Football field maintenance

The board has previously entertained discussions to improve the condition of the football field. The COVID-19 pandemic has seemed to put a halt on taking any current action.

“We had a number of different quotes available trying to fix the field a number of different ways,” Tamaqua Superintendent Ray Kinder said.

“It was about an $8,000 cost to just kill the grass and reseed the entire field. … We were assured by our company that if they did it by June 1, that we would have grass for our first football game, obviously that’s a priority there. Issues we’ll have depending on what happens with graduation and any possible later-on use of our field - first of all it’ll be bright yellow. And once we reseed it, we can’t walk around on that field for weeks,” he said.

“If we go through this procedure, we may be eliminating that as a possibility (for graduation). Right now, our plan is if we don’t make a decision or if we push it until June or July - we probably won’t do it this year and we would wait until after football season. Right now we’re just in a holding pattern.”