Does your school district have sports and after school activities?

[chager]

The Southwestern City School District in central Ohio has eliminated all extra curricular activities (all clubs, proms, etc) and sports from the district due to not passing any levies. The district has also refused any pay to play options. (Families have asked for it) Having lived in/near the district all my life I am well aware of the "strong arm" tactics they have used in the past to get a levy passed.
Now they are putting yet another levy on the ballot for Nov. threatening to cut even more if it doesn't pass. Ok, they said that the current cuts they are making would "fix" things if the most recent issue didn't pass, now they are threatening more cuts.

I know parents are getting together to make sure Prom still happens. (My nephew's mom is in on this for his high school) SO now I am curious if any other school districts have gone to this extreme. Do you have sports?

Just for the record I do not live in the district. We were considering moving back into it until the levy failed. I also wonder what not having anything to offer will do for home values in the area. I also just found out that it is the Grove CIty residents that defeated the levy on the last go around. The rest of the areas voted for it.

 

[golfgal]

Well, since they made the cuts they must have needed the levy. The same thing happens in district around us-they will cut sports and extras if it doesn't pass but what else are they going to do, cut the math classes??? One district near us has some major budget issues and they have raised their athletic fees to $330/sport/child with no family max. They have cut several programs and lower level sports (junior high and freshman squads mostly). They didn't have a choice, their levy failed, they don't have the money. What really bothers me is when parents whine that schools need money and won't support the levy then complain when programs are cut.

 

[java]

Our school pulled this 2 years ago- And it failed misserably for the union. The parents all came together and made as many things happen as we could. We have a very volunteer driven community thankfully. So we still had the sports and the yearbook and the dances and the clubs.
Unfortunately some couldn't go on without a teacher. Like the Robotics Club. And that broke my heart because my son was captain of the club the year before and this was his last year (middle school) A Teacher had to be involved due to some legalities in the state competition. Really disappointing.

It only lasted one year. The next year the union settled for less than they had been demanding and it left a very sour taste in the communties mouth.
Oh and by the way it wasn't over program costs- ours was over health insurance for the staff- they didn't want to pay the $10 copay for office visits. - yes that was it.

 

[minniebeth]

I've been following the story since I'm local, and I feel really bad for the students of the district. It's just a bad situation all around...
to them!
I too wonder how other districts are affected especially in this economy...

 

[DrCavin]

Until our representatives in Columbus fix school funding I think this is going to be occuring more & more. The way we fund schools has been found unconstitutional many times & yet they refuse to come up with another method GRRRRR

 

[rie'smom]

Until our representatives in Columbus fix school funding I think this is going to be occuring more & more. The way we fund schools has been found unconstitutional many times & yet they refuse to come up with another method GRRRRR

This is so sad for those poor kids.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I grew up in the 70's in a district where the people did not pass any levies for 20+yrs.

They had buckets in the hallways to catch the rain. Kids had ripped up books and some classes had no books.

Today, most of the schools in that district are closed.

Nothing new, just going to happen alot more if people don't vote for it. It is why I make sure to place my kids in a school district that is growing.

 

[LuvOrlando]

What a shame. Here, our local school district, BASD just upped our property taxes/school taxes AND is threatening to take away programs for our kids because... get this, our Superintendent and his Advisor blew OUR tax dollars on the markets! I am so ticked you have no idea. I think these guys should go to jail for not protecting our kids interests, they might as well have gone to Vegas on my dime and blew the money on Blackjack Now not only are we paying more for homes that have lost untold value due to the bust, and not only I am having to stand by and watch good neighbors lose their homes BUT MY KIDS also have to do without. Officials here are looking to cut all sorts of stuff including but not limited to the stuff you cite Our taxes are due the 31st and I am not happy.

 

[Pigeon]

We live in an area where education is valued. School budgets, even in these difficult times, are overwhelmingly approved, except for one or two cases where the district administration has been involved in some shenanigans and the voters wanted to send them a message. Even then, the second vote has passed.

 

[kidzmom3]

I don't think you should blame voters who don't want their taxes, increased again. The blame lies in administrators who do not properly budget the money they are given. In unions that are greedy and are not willing to make any concessions, even in this economy. The school district is wrong in not allowing any pay to play provisions. They are just trying to force people to pass the levy. Thats wrong! The voters have spoken and should be listened too.

 

[maelstrom]

No sports?! That's insane! My local school district has cheerleading, soccer, volleyball, tennis, basketball, football, lacrosse, track, baseball, softball, wrestling, and probably some that I'm forgetting. And within that, there's girls & boys teams, or fall and winter teams in the case of cheerleading. And I can't even count all of the clubs.