By G. Melesaine
A couple of weeks ago the San Jose Eastside School District proposed to cut athletics for next year. There was no debate. The cuts had to be made before the Dec.15th, 2008 date where, according to state law, the district had to turn in their balanced budget for the next two years. The district is already in debt, and the state as well, so cuts had to be made. Athletics was the first choice.
I attended the aftermath meeting on Dec. 15 at the district office where athletic directors were confronted by angry parents and students trying to find solutions. Superintendent Bob Nunez gave the crowd a concise estimation of the costs for athletics, which includes the cost of coaches, transportation, equipment, gym, field, pools, and more. The total came close to $4 million. At the meeting, I asked a parent how much notice they got when the decision was made. One parent said, “The first I heard about the cutting of athletics was the day they announced the cut.”
The meeting was soon split into groups to brainstorm solutions to raise money which would be collected and placed in an account specifically for the athletics funding. The district says it is already in contact with all major Bay Area sport teams to see what they can do to help.
Some of the solutions that were suggested in the group were donations from alumni, volunteer coaches and even the “pay-to-play” option. To me, it seemed that the solutions were too minor, and unless Bill Gates or Oprah woke up one morning feeling inspired to give a couple million dollars away to a district that already fails students, the district is in trouble.
I saw one of my old basketball coaches at the meeting and joined his solution group. That took me back to my balling days (there was a huge scandal enfolding at that time about the former superintendent embezzling a couple million dollars). I hated playing basketball in an institution, but the only reason I joined was to stay in school. As soon as the season was over—well some might consider me a dropout. Basketball was the only discipline that was keeping me at school.
Athletics for many students is self-disciplining, not only physically but mentally as well. It is, for some, the only way to keep their grades up and judging from test scores of the Eastside district, there will probably be an even bigger inevitable drop next year.
High school is the defining point of one’s life, a transition from adolescence to adulthood responsibilities. High school pretty much is where your plans begin for your future, and athletics for some becomes the only path to attending the best universities by way of a sports scholarship.
My friends and I used to use the slang term “hoop dreams,” which came from a old documentary about a couple of high school kids trying to get out the “hood,” depending on their basketball abilities. Almost everyone I knew had hoop dreams, track dreams, football dreams, and on and on. It wasn’t because they wanted to be the popular star of the campus—most of the time it was just to be the first one in their family to go to a four year college and become something for a community where the majority fails because the education system fails them.
Those dreams may just have gotten cut before they even started.
“Hoop dreams” are nice, but if a kid wants to have any hope of success in life she/he had better get an education first and foremost. Most kids won’t be playing professional hoops, but all will apply for jobs that require an education.
Anytime the debate comes down to academics vs athletics, there is really no choice. Basketball, football and other sports are a great extracurricular activity, but they are just that…secondary to the cirriculum.
That’s not to say that sports does not have value. But when a school district is confronted with a choice of cutting education or sports, education must come first. It’s a touch choice, but Nunez made the right decision.
A recent feature article by Joe Rodriguez in the Mercury News encapsulates the issue well:
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_11222604?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com
Anyone who believes there is a dichotomy between a core curriculum and inter-scholastic athletics has a warped understanding of reality. Sports (and art and music) are central to the educational mission.
As a resident of the East Side school district, I can assure you to a 95% probability that this move is a ploy of some kind and will never be made a permanent change—right now it is more of a temporary floating-of-a-balloon.
It will be used to extract concessions or support from some group or other. Administrators do this all the time, e.g., send out numerous pink slips and then withdraw them after scaring recipients silly, or “finding” money when appropriate. It’s the same trick that City Hall uses.
East Side actually has three budgets (not just one) as do other school districts in this area, and this anti-sports balloon will result in changes, possibly reductions of sports expenses, but it was never meant to end all sports when the final decision is made.
I think it is called advancing to the end of a diving board over an empty pool, bouncing up and down, and claiming to want to jump head first down on the concrete.
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East Side issued a bond last year based on revenues siphoned off from its ordinary income to bring its contributions to employee retirements up to par. Legal? Probably not, but the district hired three expensive and prestigious law firms (one here, one in L.A., and one in S.F.) to get a preliminary declaratory judgment barring residents’ legal objections to this curious species of bond. All ignored by the Mercury News.
I’ve heard young people talk about this at the community center where I work at and to them, it’s NOT an either-or. It’s not athletics vs. academics. It’s exactly what the writer said—that sports is a way that keeps them IN school. I was talking with my friend (who’s in his 30’s) the other day who even said that if it wasn’t for playing basketball and football in school, he wouldn’t even have made it through school. I wouldn’t be surprised if the drop-out rates go up because of this.
They ALWAYS cut, cut and cut.
When are they going to cut their own pay, benefits, various compensation packages, bloated severance pay…
there is plenty of money in education, it just all goes to administrators!
#3: “It will be used to extract concessions or support from some group or other. Administrators do this all the time, e.g., send out numerous pink slips and then withdraw them after scaring recipients silly, or “finding” money when appropriate. It’s the same trick that City Hall uses.”
It isn’t crying wolf this time. You are right that athletics will probably end up being saved, but the budget shortfall is real and serious. The complaints need to go to Sacramento, not the district. When $10 million less is sent your way, the choices are all bad.
#5: “it just all goes to administrators!”
Let’s assume that there are 10 extraneous administrators in ESUHSD (a dubious assumption considering that the last five bad budget years have resulted in elimination must of the obvoius waste in schools). If you assume that 10 administrators could save the district $1.5 million, you still have an $8.5 million shortfall. Now what? And most people say that administrators should cut their pay first. While I agree, that would be a token amount ($100K) in a budget shortfall of $10 million. The sports cuts are proposed to save $2.1 million. Administrator benefits is not a 1:1 trade.
As long as the state ranks at the bottom in per pupil funding, our schools will continue to get worse. All we are doing is shortchanging our kids at a time when we need to educate them better in order to improve the economy long term.
#2 Don: How do you explain the many private schools that seem to be superior to public schools in every respect, yet do not have extracurricular athletics?
I’m not saying sports are not important. They are. But in a situation where there may not be enough revenue to fund classroom learning, funding sports is difficult to justify.
Don’t you find it ironic that there is now a movement to find alternative funding to safe sports, but no similar effort to restore the cuts that are also being made to academics?
#7 MC:
I’m not aware of a private school which is “superior to public schools in every respect” yet lacks extracurricular athletics, so I certainly cannot “explain” such a school. Indeed, I have difficulty with the premise that a private secondary school without athletics can be considered “superior” in any respect.
I know that my own public school education was greatly enhanced by my participation in inter-scholastic soccer. I’ve since forgotten nearly everything I learned in high school (despite my being a straight-A student) except the value of teamwork, time-management and self-discipline, all inculcated on the soccer pitch (despite my being a scrub).
Also, I have taken to heart the message from the Oak Grove soccer players conveyed in the Mercury News story I cited: Many of these kids would NOT be in school at all but for their soccer team.
As for the “irony” of the “movement” to save high school sports, I cannot speak for others and I do not consider myself part of a movement since my only contribution is spouting off in cyberspace, but perhaps the issue has resonated in recognition of the permanence of the lessons learned on the athletic field versus the transience of lessons learned in the classroom.
#9 Don” “transience of lessons learned in the classroom” ? Nice phrase. Perhaps some of those classroom lessons are less transient than you think!
#10- Richard,
Nicely said.
#9 Don,
The afternoon is a dangerous time for San Jose teanagers,the hours from 3PM to 6PM, a time when no working parents are home.Statistics prove this time period is peak time periods for experimentation with drugs,alcohol and sex. This is also the peak period for juvenile crime, or joining gangs. It has been proven that adult-supervised after-school programs can dramatically cut those risks among our children.
Sports activity after school promote social awarness,leadership,teamwork while developing the individual`s sense of social responsibility. It is these after school programs not only keep kids out of trouble, but also produce responsible citizens, and they are responsible building blocks in our childrens personalty.
Our children are growing up in a society that demands expertise in everything.We really can`t sit back and decide that learning from texbooks is enough for the development of our children in San Jose.
After school programs are basicly designed to develop talent or a skill that is ignored by regular schools. These sports programs after school keep children active and interested.
#11 and #9,
“Where have all our leaders gone”.
We need to have the leaders of our city step up to the plate and look at the big picture and help!
VTA cut`s bus service because of budget problems,schools cut after school activities,police department and Fire department budget`s get cut down. All this will effect all the children in our city in a negative way.
Transportation appears to be the most complex and formidable of the challanges faced by school-based,after school programs. It affects the hours ofprogramming, who is able to participate and the cost of those progams.Pograms inability to provide transportation home is a major barrier to participation for large proportion of students.
THE CONSEQUENCES OF INADEQUATE TRANSPORTATION ARE SUBSTANCIAL. Many children of less prividlage families are again being left out,these are the children that would most benefit after school hour programs and available buses.
“WHERE ARE OUR LEADERS WHEN THE NEED IS CLEAR”?