Varsity sports teams at Gillingham Charter School will not be participating in the Schuylkill League for two years.
During the board of trustees meeting Thursday, Nicolle M. Hutchinson, director of education and CEO, said that the charter school applied to the league and was unanimously denied by all athletic directors in the league.
She said that means their athletes are not allowed to play in the league and the school will have to wait another two years before it can be considered again.
According to newspaper archives, representatives from the charter school in April said that starting this school year, high school students would be participating in the league, although there was no talk about whether they had applied at that time.
Although students will not be participating in the Schuylkill League, Hutchinson said there will still be varsity teams, which this year includes archery in the fall, archery and boys' basketball during the winter, and archery and girls' soccer in the spring.
"For our basketball team, our athletic directors had to find teams out of the area to play," she said. "We will be in a tournament in Philadelphia against (students from) charter schools and private schools."
In addition to these varsity sports, Gillingham will also be starting clubs, this year creating golf, tennis and soccer clubs, in hopes of adding those sports in the future.
While they already have a varsity girls' soccer team, they plan to add a varsity boys' soccer team next year.
Club sports will be offered to students in grades seven through 10 so the school can build for the future and the teams will be coached by teachers and other people in the community.
"We'll do that for the next couple years and hopefully after that, we will be accepted into the league," Hutchinson said.
Students at Gillingham are also allowed to participate in a varsity sport at their home school district if the charter school doesn't offer it, while students at the school districts may participate in a sport at Gillingham if their school doesn't offer it.
Hutchinson said there has already been interest from a student to participate in archery at Gillingham.
"We're doing our best this coming year to work with them so when the two years are up, they will accept us," Hutchinson said. "We're doing all that we can."
In other business, Christie Werkheiser, director of organizational development, said that they are tweaking the contract with the Simon Kramer Institute, New Philadelphia, and expect to be able to use their facilities for student athletics in October.
"It's going to be a very good arrangement for Gillingham," Werkheiser said.
The charter school also hired Kara Stalter as a title one teacher at $34,000, Audra Young as a special education teacher at $34,000 and Nadine Zaccheo as a special education teacher at $34,000.
Resignations were accepted for Zaccheo and Emily Bieber, who were both said to have only been with the school for a short time, Zaccheo for two weeks and Bieber for a day.