As if we needed a further reminder of what a complete and total failure Vermont’s education funding system is and why this should be priority #1 for legislators, our school board’s finance committee held preliminary discussions with district staff about outsourcing some middle and possible high school sports out to community-based organizations.
It wasn’t enough that education taxes went up 14% across the state last year and scores of budgets failed – including our own that required three votes to pass. It wasn’t enough that we had to make painful cuts to our foreign languages programs to bring the budget down to numbers voters could support.
The Harwood Unified Union School District board’s finance committee January 13 discussion about outsourcing some sports was preliminary and exploratory and was about how it might be accomplished rather than articulating plans to do so. It’s not slated for this coming budget year, except for middle school basketball which might be a possibility.
Recall that our school board has crafted an incredibly tight budget for the upcoming year. It is going up 2% which is damn lean. It relies on significant staffing and programming cuts to bring the budget in at $51 million, or the 2% increase over last year’s $48 million budget.
The savings anticipated by moving some athletics from the school budget and into community-based programming include savings on coaches, transportation, VPA fees and facility fees. They are not huge as part of the proposed $51 million dollar budget, about $73,000.
Finance committee members had some very legitimate reservations including concerns about whether athletics would still be equally accessible to all district families (given fees for joining some community-based programs). This is critical as all school sports have been free for all students to ensure equal access. Committee members also asked whether the programs slated for outsourcing are the right ones and whether any of this hints at “pay to play” programs which are currently being litigated in southern Vermont school districts.
Another very real concern is about the role that middle school athletics play in kids’ developmental progress as they advance from more play-based games to competition-based games.
Let’s not do this.
