RANGELEY – Despite pleas by others, the six seniors who hired an exotic dancer during a class trip still have to meet the school’s conditions if they’re to graduate with their class next month.

The School Board confirmed this week that it won’t reconsider its decision. Superintendent-Principal Ken Coville declined to specify what the discipline was for the students or what the conditions are.

It will be up to the six students to demonstrate whether they’ll meet the conditions the board has set and graduate with their class on June 11, said Chairman Harold Schaetzle during Tuesday’s board meeting. Their actions took place during a class trip in Boston in late March. Students were disciplined by school officials after they returned to Rangeley High School.

A petition containing 141 signatures presented to the board on April 27 requested that the disciplinary action for the six senior boys be reconsidered. The board was presented with information outlining the actions of the students at an April 8 meeting.

According to school policy, the disciplined students wouldn’t have been eligible to graduate, based on the number of days missed from school.

However, the board voted at the April 8 meeting to provide a limited waiver of the attendance policy so that the disciplined students could still graduate, subject to a series of conditions outlined by the School Board.

Schaetzle read a statement during Tuesday’s meeting. In it, he said that “the School Board made this decision with care and thought. While the School Board does not routinely grant exceptions to its policies, an exception was made in this instance as the School Board determined that satisfaction of the conditions would allow the disciplined students to examine their decision-making, and provide the opportunity for true growth as young adults. For these reasons, the School Board will not reconsider its decision.”

Coville said Wednesday that school policy states that students can’t have more than four unexcused absences in a class during a semester. Under state law, suspension counts as an unexcused absence, he said.

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