ROCHELLE – Rochelle Middle School will start a sixth-grade athletics pilot program for the 2026-2027 school year, allowing students to participate in six sports seasons where they were previously ineligible. The program was developed by the school principal, athletic director, and assistant superintendent and is designed to be low-to-no cost. The Rochelle Elementary District 231 School Board approved the program. Boys and Girls Basketball, Dance, Volleyball and Soccer would be offered for 6th graders for the first time with volunteer coaches. Transportation for away events would be using buses already going to the same events for 7th and 8th grade students. Superintendent Dr. Jason Harper said that for those rare occasions where the 6th grade would have to travel to a separate event, they would rely on parents if possible. He noted that this is a pilot program for the first year, and they’ll try to overcome obstacles as they arise.
“Right now a number of the schools to our West primarily offer 6th grade sports,” he said. “Our current conference that we’re part of for 7th and 8th, typically and historically, has not had 6th grade sports. So we’ll do a lot of partnership with schools to the west of us, Oregon, Byron, Stillman, Sterling, Dixon, schools that were used to cooperating with and working with on a lot of different projects.”