New York 2014

[gneissisnice]

It is also a relatively new policy. Great Neck South got caught by it a couple of years ago, but before that teams sometimes brought the check to competition. If that presented some kind of problem for tournament organizers, I think the goal of promoting earlier filing could have been accomplished with a less severe penalty. It certainly is not in New York's best interest to bar its best team, and it seems wrong to punish the students for a relatively minor oversight on the part of the coaches.

P.S. it was more than a day, or so I hear. I don't know how late it was, but I'm not sure how much that matters.

It wasn't even an oversight from the coaches.

The check had to be approved by the school's administration, and now they're strict about getting everything audited. The coach filled out everything immediately after regionals, and even circled the due date in red pen so the school would send it out in time. Administration waited until the week it was due, approved it, and waited to get it audited, but apparently the auditor was sick so they had to wait a couple of days for him to come before they could send out the check. I believe it was due on a Friday and they sent it out the next Monday, after the auditor examined it.

[Flavorflav]

I don't think any of the Long Island public schools got a district check in time - the slot gets held open by the coach's personal check. That is the oversight I was talking about.

[gneissisnice]

I don't think any of the Long Island public schools got a district check in time - the slot gets held open by the coach's personal check. That is the oversight I was talking about.

Ah, I see what you mean.

[blockhead]

Couldn't the coach or a parent have written a check? Given the amount of money involved with the actual events, the registration could not have been that high. Hasn't the students time and effort been worth more? How'd other teams do it? This isn't a new issue is it? This isn't a school that just joined SO. It's not a one room school with naive coaches. They had the same problem before right? Could someone not have foreseen this based on the last several years and made a backup plan? Are there other reasons WM administration doesn't want the team to compete? I know the students have been working very hard for a long time. WM ran Regionals but couldn't get it together to get a check in for States?

Really? Adults can't work this out in a way that doesn't hurt the students. Haven't the adults learned anything from watching the students show good sportsmanship regardless of what happens? Is this in keeping with the spirit of SO or don't adults have to adhere to that value? Well that is pretty darn sad! I'd say that every involved adult has to be DQ'd!

I hope I am not being too hard on the involved adults. It is hard to believe that adults would make decisions that seem so bad. Maybe there is some other more understandable reason.

From SO's own site. Good one for all involved adults to contemplate more than they have. A quote from Einstein: The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to our lives.

Morality does not necessarily mean following the rules exactly as stated. That must be why SO's focus is "Spirit". Heads up adults, students are watching how you handle this. I know. I was one of them!

[gneissisnice]

Couldn't the coach or a parent have written a check? Given the amount of money involved with the actual events, the registration could not have been that high. Hasn't the students time and effort been worth more? How'd other teams do it? This isn't a new issue is it? This isn't a school that just joined SO. It's not a one room school with naive coaches. They had the same problem before right? Could someone not have foreseen this based on the last several years and made a backup plan? Are there other reasons WM administration doesn't want the team to compete? I know the students have been working very hard for a long time. WM ran Regionals but couldn't get it together to get a check in for States?

Really? Adults can't work this out in a way that doesn't hurt the students. Haven't the adults learned anything from watching the students show good sportsmanship regardless of what happens? Is this in keeping with the spirit of SO or don't adults have to adhere to that value? Well that is pretty darn sad! I'd say that every involved adult has to be DQ'd!

I hope I am not being too hard on the involved adults. It is hard to believe that adults would make decisions that seem so bad. Maybe there is some other more understandable reason.

From SO's own site. Good one for all involved adults to contemplate more than they have. A quote from Einstein: The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to our lives.

Morality does not necessarily mean following the rules exactly as stated. That must be why SO's focus is "Spirit". Heads up adults, students are watching how you handle this. I know. I was one of them!

The school administration definitely wants the kids to go, they're trying to fight now to get them to go. They just screwed up badly. How they messed up so bad, I don't know, but the really unfortunate thing is that the kids are being punished for something they had no control over.

[glaciergary]

I am the coach of Paul J. Gelinas JHS, one of the schools that feeds into Ward Melville HS. Many of these students were in my program several years ago.

Clearly, NY Science Olympiad has a right to have a deadline. Ward Melville business office did not mail the check in time, and did not meet that deadline. NY Science Olympiad has a practice to inform any team that has not submitted paperwork a week before the deadline. Mr. Miller, the state director, called over 25 schools to inform them that their participation at the state tournament may be in jeopardy. He called and left a message with one of the WM coaches on her Long Island answering machine. However, this particular coach is retired and spends the winter in Florida. She helps out with the regional and state tournaments, but does not actively coach the team on a weekly basis.

The head coach was not informed of the problem until after the deadline, and when the decision to withdraw the invitation to states was made. The head coach immediately sent a personal check on Monday which arrived on Tuesday. The bottom line is that the team was never informed of the problem until it was too late to do anything. The wrong person was contacted.

Our district has appealed this decision but the Science Olympiad board supports this harsh decision because they are following their established policy. They enforced this in the past and barred two schools from competing, one of which was Great Neck in 2011. I don't recall the name of the school affected last year.

The team is devastated and it is just so wrong to have such a harsh consequence for the kids when this administrative error was beyond their control. It is simply unfair for any team to be prevented from competing in a state tournament in which they earned their spot. Other consequences, such as a late fee, could be implemented.

Not that WM should get any special treatment, but the school district also hosted the Eastern Long Island Regionals for the past two years. They have registered for states for years without having this problem. Mistakes get made; that is life, but people (the SO Board) should take circumstances into consideration. They simply did not contact anyone on the team as has been their intent to avoid this type of circumstance.

I hope other teams understand the situation, and are aware about how difficult this will be for Ward Melville team.

Gary Vorwald

[blockhead]

Wonder if other teams could support the need to allow WM to compete. With so much focus on the spirit of SO seems odd that the officials would not act in a way that was reasonable. The term "spirit" not "rule" is emphasized for a reason. Past decisions are irrelevant. A poor decision one year does not justify repeating it. I could understand if there was something that had happened after registration that made it impossible to allow for a glitch. If they had rented a school with one too few team rooms or could not make room for one more, then I can see the need to stick to the rule. But that isn't true. The adults need to consider what is in the best interest of the students, the teams and SO. Keeping WM from competing will be a bad thing for all the students and for New York's SO. If they know the circumstances then the decision not to allow the team to compete is not consistent with SOs own pledge because they are disregarding the participants:


On behalf of my fellow supervisors and tournament personnel, I pledge to run my event with fairness and respect for the participants and their coaches. Our actions will reflect the principles of the Science Olympiad program and display the pride we feel as representatives of our colleges, universities, companies, states or organizations.

[caseyotis]

I honestly think a petition should be started. This is outrageous.

[Flavorflav]

I'm trying to think of a way we could express support for WM at States. Any thoughts?

[gneissisnice]

I'm trying to think of a way we could express support for WM at States. Any thoughts?

While Mr. Miller is talking, everyone should give the three finger solute from The Hunger Games.

Seriously though, I don't know what anyone could do, but the team greatly appreciates any show of support.