Gainesville parent does not like school weigh-ins

GAINESVILLE - A Gainesville parent told school board members Monday night she's upset about student 'weigh ins' at school in a bill she said was 'slipped in' by state legislators this year.

Marty Jones has three daughters in the Gainesville School system. She says no child should be weighed in front of their classmates, but that is now the law. She checked further and found out it was optional. A letter explaining that was supposed to go out. She did not get one.

"A letter should have been sent home informing parents of the program and what was going to happen and if a family did not want to participate they could opt out of the weigh-in situation. We were not provided with that information," Jones said. "I'm horrified that the government would get involved with whether my child was overweight, underweight, in shape or not in shape,"

Superintendent Merianne Dyer said some schools may not have notified parents; she said she would review that.

"There are several steps that are taken at the school level with parental notification," Dr. Dyer said. "What we'll do is go back and review those and be sure that our schools have taken those steps. I certainly share her concern, I'm a mother too."

Dr. Dyer said the legislation well intended but there are some unintended negative consequences.

"All the steps may not have been explicitly stated," Dr. Dyer said. "Weight is one of about 15 different measures in the program."

EARLIER HIGH SCHOOL TIME

School Board members learned that because Gainesville is moving up to a Five-A Region athletic classification and high school students and athletes may have to report to school earlier than elementary students in the new school year.
Dr. Dyer said that's because they will have to travel further for out of town games.

"What we can do is look at our internal class schedule and make adjustments that would maximize the time in class and lessen the time athletes would miss from class," Dr. Dyer said. "Part of that would be starting the school day earlier."

Those classifications are set by the Georgia High School Association based on school population. Board members said they wanted input from parents and governance council members.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2012/4/247593