KING CITY — High school seniors in King City and Greenfield won’t have to worry about community service hours for their graduation in 2021.
School board members for South Monterey County Joint Union High School District voted to waive the requirement for the 2020-21 school year for all schools in the district during their Sept. 23 board meeting.
The district’s four campuses — Greenfield High School, King City High School, Portola-Butler Continuation High School and Pinnacle Academy Charter — will no longer require the community service hours for graduation next year.
District officials said, due to Covid-19, “It’s unreasonable to expect students to be able to go out and get their hours of community service because they’re not supposed to be out. It makes sense that we shouldn’t have students be able to graduate because of a requirement that’s not attainable.”
Board members also discussed the idea of bringing community service hours to ninth grade when community service once again becomes an option. It was requested as a future topic in order to relieve the stress of students during their senior year, as well as get students more involved in the community earlier in life.
District staff said parents and students would be notified about the decision.
