Combining the 7th and 8th grade teams

[kng03]

Has anybody heard that next year they are combining the 7th and 8th grade sports teams? This will eliminate at least 20 kids per sport when this happens and the results will be devastating.
What are the savings monetarily when weighed against the effects it has on our student athletes??
It is not bad enough that the Wantagh Little League pays for and maintains all of the baseball and softball fields at all of the schools and the bond did not include one penny for these fields because they know the Little league will pay for it.
Now they want to combine ALL of the 7th and 8th grade sports teams.....maybe they are looking for the little league and Wantagh Football club to supplement all of these sports teams.
Has this issued been posted anywhere besides the letter given to the coaches at the school???

[wantmom]

It is all about sports and the turf field and the new gym, then they want to cut back on midle schoolsports!!! does not make sense to me. This is what kids wait for, school sports, the chance to be on a "school team"., and you are cutting down there chances on thier first opportunity by combining 2 of the largest classes we have had tyo date!

[idea2004]

while I am all for kids and sports arts and music the reason kids go to school is to get an education how many kids become professonial athletes , we spend too much on sports and not enough on education what are the reading and math programs we have that meet the NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND LAW OR IDEA 2004 , just a few short years ago 40% of the 8th grade class FAILED THE STATE ASSESSMENT FOR ENGLISH whats been done to help those kids?

[mack]

Those horrible 8th grade ELA scores two years ago was due to no curriculum update in 10-15 years which ties back to spending on academics.

That realization happened within weeks of the district receiving the poor scores which was September of the next school year and the curriculum was immediately changed for the incoming 8th graders. I don't know how the kids who received the poor scores were helped (class of 2010?). With the curriculum change, the 8th grade scores for the class of 2011 shot back up. But it definitely proves your point about spending money on academics.

RtI and IDEA are a whole other discussion.

[twinlaker]

to stay on topic (although academics are an on-going problem here) -

proven again and again: kids that get involved in sports and/or cultural arts, especially early on, are not the kids failing their assessments, failing their classes or getting into trouble.

lately, every time I pass the Administrative wing of the middle school and see those ten bright shiny stars, I think about the 10 groups of kids whose backs that we seem to be trying to balance the budget upon.

allowing an increase in the budget that decrease in the types of classes, sports or cultural arts offerings to our kids is a bad precedent.

[lilly]

Apr 30, 2008 10:09:50 GMT -5 twinlaker said:

allowing an increase in the budget that decrease in the types of classes, sports or cultural arts offerings to our kids is a bad precedent.

Yup, bad dangerous precedent.

[annemarie]

Hello all. I am new to this, but I just had a question. When I was back in Wantagh M.S. and Wantagh H.S., we just had Junior Varsity and Varsity Teams. That was it. Why did they break that up into smaller sections? It is because there are more children in the schools now? Or is there some other factor involved? Just curious. Thanks any info.

[concernedparent]

From what I understand, having individual teams for 7th and 8th grade is relatively new. I'm sure that the extra teams where added to accomodate the large number of kids that wanted to play and they didn't want to turn kids away.

That's great.

But when you have a district that has: outdated textbooks in some grades, including 25 year old textbooks in certain subjects in the the high school, offers so few AP classes, puts almost no money for staff development and curriculum writing, doesn't have a long-term technology plan for the district, and is so far behind what comparable districts offer in so many other ways, you have to stop and say is combining those teams the biggest problem this district has.

[backintheday]

The question we should all be asking is HOW and WHY did things get so bad. We have poor technology yes, but we also have a technology director. What happen? That is just one example, the issues go across all areas. What are our administrators and BOE doing? Business as usual cannot sustain?

[lulubell]

With the high taxes we pay and the 8% increase in state aid (as per Newsday) there should be no reason to combine 7th & 8th grade sports team. What would be saved? The coaches fee and the busing for away games; which would amount to approx $20,000. Surely there is a compromise.... they could offer to host more home games and play fewer away games. The kids are in school for academics BUT extra curricular activities - be it sports, music, foreign language or tech are all important social avenues for teens to explore in a supervised environment! It is a fact that teens who are involved in after school activities are less likely to get in trouble than the teens who are not. As a community I would hope that we will do all we can to keep our children out of trouble.........and that means allowing as many kids as possible to participate in sports, band, various clubs etc so we can keep them from wandering around with nothing to do!!

[lilly]

May 1, 2008 19:20:11 GMT -5 backintheday said:

The question we should all be asking is HOW and WHY did things get so bad.

Great question in terms of how & why.

Here are some theories:

LI in general doesn't get its fair share of state funding relative to what we contribute in taxes.

Wantagh doesn't get its fair share of that disproportionately low state funding.

Contracted rate increases (salary & benefits, transportation) which make up the overwhelming majority of expenses is out of the community's control since they are pre-determined by the board and administration before the budgets are developed.

Small commercial tax base, putting the tax burden on private homeowners.

We don't benefit from economies of scale given our small size. And culturally, do we plan enough to take advantage of the few areas we could have it across the buildings.

Unfunded and underfunded federal & state mandates (NCLB, audits, special ed).

Not nearly enough long term/short term fiscal planning, particularly in the past. Applies to hard (building maintenance) and soft (academics) costs.

Little/no awareness that one of the lowest spending per pupil figures doesn't work in some situations and eventually catches up with us.

None of this is going to be solved in this current budget vote but it is coming up soon. They have been on-going issues, nothing new. And quite frankly, it feels very divisive in the community (e.g., Beech PTA memos, numerous emails on the sports teams). Probably bc of the varying levels of understanding with the issues but I'm not sure, and probably from frustration with lack of district and board response to some of these issues over time. Add on lack of communication.

It is what it is - but the issues are still there and have to be addressed - we have to move on and move ahead.

The big question is how are we, as a community going to address the present situation and move ahead?

[concernedcitizen]

What else is being cut besides middle school sports? Seems the first cuts are always the ones that hurt the kids. How about administrative cuts?

School sports and other extra curricular activities are so important to the Middle School child. Middle School students only want to be a part of a group whether it is a group that is beneficial to them or a group that is detrimental. (Like a gang. Yes, there are gangs all over Long Island, some are right next door.) If we take away structured activities that help the well-being of Wantagh's children what are they supposed to do?

Students involved in extra curricular activities learn valuable skills such as the value and importance of teamwork, self-confidence, self-discipline, physical and mental growth and the rewards of hard work. Studies show that students who feel they are a part of the school community are more motivated to show higher academic achievement. Extra curricular activities are a great way for students to try new things, show off strengths and connect with peers that have similar interests.

The Board of Education is obviously unaware of the affects of sports on the Middle School student. If they did, they would realize that by cutting school sports they are denying students more than just a game on the new turf, they are denying them a once in a lifetime chance to develop so many positive skills. But hey, at least they will have more time to play video games or worse.

[planman78]

"The Board of Education is obviously unaware of the affects of sports on the Middle School student"
I think this is unfair. Having sat through many a BAC meeting one of the complaints always heard is that were spending to much money on sports. Having a sports budget closing in on a million dollars in a 64 million dollar budget -a decision was made to try to curtail the spending in this area. It would be nice to place everything into this budget. But with a 7.75% budget increase a balance had to be considered. Cuts were carefully considered and unfortunately the sports budget was included in these cuts. All of these cuts were considered and debated. It was not an easy decision to make knowing that children will be effected by each decision.

[lulubell]

I totally agree with concernedcitizen. It's as if the board, or BAC, are trying to fix one problem while creating another one. It's just another patch in a flawed plan. Extra curricular activities, including Middle School sports provide a great place for kids to develop and mature. I'd like to ask the administrators to survey the kids that have drinking, drug or discipline problems and see what percentage participated in sports or any extra curricular program? Do we really want to add to this growing problem? I think not.
Obviously change is needed but why is it always taken away from the kids first? Have there been any administrative cuts that I am not aware of? The education sector has been immune to the current economic crisis. Companies are reducing force and holding employees responsible for increased work loads yet many educators feel this shouldn't apply to them. Everyone needs to compromise. We as a community have continually passed high budgets and bonds for the benefit of our children but enough is enough. Make the cuts where they should be.

Thank you Lily; "Contracted rate increases (salary & benefits, transportation) which make up the overwhelming majority of expenses is out of the community's control since they are pre-determined by the board and administration before the budgets are developed." for informing me, and the citizens that the salaries are decided upon before the budget is presented by the administration and board. It's appalling that they decide to increase their salary while our children lose activities and services. Perhaps we need to establish a review board that oversees contract negotiations to make sure there are no improprieties going on. Where is the fiscal responsibility?

[lilly]

lulubell, I love seeing the incredible amount of after school activity at the middle school and high school which is mostly the sports. That's where our kids should be and a great thing to offer them. What you said about sports applies to our creative kids and kids who learn differently - they get the short end too and are at as high a risk (even fact even higher) but since there is less of them that makes it ok? No it doesn't. And I agree with you that the budget seems to be patchwork but that has been the way it has been in Wantagh for years. We probably do need a contracts committee and another one to work on long term financial planning.

However, as far as sports go, here is one comparison for proposed 08/09 Interscholastic Athletics budgets:

Massapequa
Enrollment: 8,230
Sports: $1,170,082

Wantagh:
Enrollment: 3,738
Sports: $773,047
Includes the middle school sports teams cut.

So Massapequa has more than double the amount of students Wantagh has but only spends 51% more on sports? Or if you divide those numbers the average sports cost per student in Massapequa is $142.17 yet in Wantagh it's $206.81? A rate of 45% more? Plus that Wantagh number excludes the interest we are paying for the $6m+ in bonds for HS gym and field, probably not even the principal. I wonder how big the number would be if that were included. And while yes the community voted for it, one of them one was by two, yes only two votes.

It just seems like we have bigger problems like underfunded academics.