INTERPRETATION
 
Interpretation's Date: February 4, 1993
by superintendent Dr. Henry Marockie
Section: IV. Students
 
Interpretation

February 4, 1993

Ms. Theresa B. Johnson
Route 1, Box 143A
Shenandoah Junction, West Virginia 25442

RE: Girls'_Athletics_Teams

Dear Ms. Johnson:

Your recent letter in behalf of your daughter to First Lady Rachael Worby has been forwarded to my office for reply. Your daughter soon will enter Jefferson High School in Jefferson County, and she would like to compete on girls' soccer, track and cross-country teams; however, there are no such teams for girls -- although girls are invited to join the boys' track and cross-country teams. You wonder:

"Is it legal to fund a boys' soccer team, but not a girls'?"

"[You] . . . would like to see a girls' soccer team in Jefferson County, as well as a girls' cross-country coach -- just like the boys [have]."

The State Department of Education is sensitive to the needs of all students, girls as well as boys. Nevertheless, which teams a school will have is a local decision, subject to W.Va. Code 18-5-13 where it says:

The board of each county shall expend under such regulations as it establishes for each child an amount not to exceed the proportion of all school funds of the district that each child would be entitled to receive if all the funds were distributed equally among all the children of school age in the district upon a per capita basis and to the rules and regulations of the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission.*

____________
*Federal law can, of course, also become involved. In this respect, please consider the enclosed booklet published by the State Department of Education: Complying_With_Title_IX_In_ Physical_Education_and_Athletics.

Ms. Theresa B. Johnson
Page 2
February 4, 1993

Another factor that would be important in consideration of your questions is whether there are enough interested girls to justify the creation of separate girls' teams in these sports. These are facts which, of course, are not available to us and can only be supplied by the local school officials.

Please discuss this with Principal Jimmy L. Carpenter and, if necessary, with Superintendent Robert Ingram and the Jefferson County Board of Education.

If you wish to contact the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission (WVSSAC), you should write or call:

Mr. Warren Carter, Executive Secretary West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission
Route 9, Box 76
Parkersburg, West Virginia 26101
Telephone 485-5494

A copy of this letter will be sent to First Lady Rachael Worby at her request and for her information.

Hoping that I have been of service, I am

Sincerely,

/s/

Henry Marockie
State Superintendent of Schools

HM:nh/5436e
Enclosure

cc: First Lady Rachael Worby
Governor's Mansion

Dr. Robert H. Ingram
Superintendent
Jefferson County Schools


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