Middletown Home School Parents Continue To Ask District To Let Kids Play Sports (2024)

Schools

Some Middletown parents want to know where each Board member stands on the request to allow home-school kids play on district sports teams:

Posted Thu, Aug 31, 2023 at 4:31 pm ET|Updated Thu, Aug 31, 2023 at 4:52 pm ET

The hot topic now in Middletown is will the district allow home-school students play on public school sports teams and join after-school clubs?

It appears the school board is split on this request.

At the meeting, a district administrator said the topic was discussed this August in the co-curriculum committee, but there was "not consensus to move forward (on that)."

That means there was not enough votes to bring the request out of committee and present it to the full Board for a vote. Here is who sits on Middletown's co-curriculum committee: Leonora Caminiti (chair), Joe Fitzgerald, Barry Heffernan and Joan Minnuies.

Fitzgerald said he and Heffernan both voted to move the suggestion forward and out of committee.

"But there was a deadlock," said Fitzgerald. "I thought it was going to be on the agenda last night and I was shocked when it was not. I really think all of us — me, Leonora and Joan included — thought it was still going to be up for discussion last night. We talked about that in executive session."

Minnuies and Caminiti did not respond to Patch when we asked them to explain their vote.

Later in the meeting, board member Gary Tulp said he wanted to keep talking about the home-school sports request and he asked if he could bring it up for a vote.

Board member Jacqueline Tobacco replied that the process is the request will now be discussed in the policy committee, which she is the chair of. She said she would introduce it to the policy committee.

Tobacco said "she feels terrible" and said she knows everyone is "emotional" over this topic. "I don't think anyone here is 100 percent against anything like this. I think it's just a process."

Tobacco, Tulp, Frank Capone and Kate Farley sit on the policy committee. Here are all the committees on the Middletown school board. The district superintendent, now Jessica Alfone as acting, could also directly introduce it as a recommendation to the board.

Patch asked Alfone if the district was opposed to this idea, and if so, why. She did not respond.

Home-school parents in Middletown are not backing down

One home-school mom stood up Wednesday night and said she wanted to know where each school board member stood on the request to allow home-school kids play sports.

"I was surprised and disappointed ... I thought the conversation had just begun," said Belinda Rooney. "As a member of this community, as a parent in Middletown, I deserve to know where each board member stands."

Rooney, who homeschools her twin boys, 11, said she's been trying since April of 2023 to allow home-school children play on public school sports teams. She said she met with previous superintendent Mary Ellen Walker about this, then superintendent Alfone and Mayor Tony Perry. All seemed supportive, she said.

"This should be a simple policy change," said another Middletown mom. "This is just the right thing to do. To allow tax-paying citizens who have kids who live in the district and have no other options. Our kids in Middletown are deprived of this opportunity and I think that is bad and wrong."

That mom also said she wants to know "Where each board member stands."

Fitzgerald continued his thoughts:

"We always talk about parental rights in Middletown and my view is it is the right of these parents to take their kids out of school, especially with what happened during the pandemic," he said. "But they are still taxpayers in the community. And their kids have the right to play sports in public school. How many kids are we talking about? Is there going to be such a huge uptick? Maybe we can test the waters this year, look at sports teams that have low turnout and let them play there. Then next season we mainstream the whole thing. But to immediately just say no is wrong."

Parents Say Middletown Won't Let Homeschooled Kids Join Sports Teams (Aug. 10)

A woman from Gays Against Groomers speaks

Wednesday night was the first public meeting since the board suffered a defeat in the courts over its transgender student policy. (On Aug. 18, a judge issued an injunction preventing Middletown from enacting its transgender student notification policy when school begins next Tuesday, Sept. 5).

One woman got up and criticized Board members Tobacco and Capone for defending the policy they co-wrote on Fox News. She said elected school board members are supposed to be non-partisan (not involved in politics).

After that woman sat down, Capone shot back that "he does represent the majority of Middletown."

A woman from Gays Against Groomers spoke and praised Middletown for trying to pass the policy.

"Why would anyone want to alienate a child from their parent?" she said.

In the least controversial news of the meeting, plans are underway to have a unified cheerleading program for the upcoming winter basketball season.

Watch the Aug. 30 Middletown school board meeting: