By Alice Phillips

As of March 16, 547 out of 870 upper school students had not completed their community service requirement for 2010-2011 year. The deadline to complete the requirement is May 2.

Seniors who fail to complete the community service requirement will not graduate, Head of Upper School Harry Salamandra said. If their service is not done by graduation, the student’s diploma folder will be empty at graduation and their June transcript will not be sent to their future college.

Juniors and sophomores who do not complete the requirement will not be able to register for the 2011-2012 school year unless they community service over the summer, which has been the case for several years.

Students who fail to perform their community service before the May 2 deadline will have to complete extra hours.

The Community Council’s requirement, which is listed as a graduation requirement in the curriculum guide, is four hours of hands-on community service that is performed with at least four other members of the Harvard-Westlake community.

“Community service is extremely important, and fits in to what Harvard-Westlake believes to be a well-rounded student’s repertoire,” Head of Community Council Gaby Cohen ’11 said. “This year, we’re enforcing a stricter punishment to try and get that message across.”

The Community Council plans to provide students with a list of outside of school community service opportunities so students can complete the requirement over spring break.