Last night at the CdA school board’s special meeting, the place was full of people supporting sports & activities programs at both high schools. They were there to specifically ask/demand that the district retain an Athletic Director in each high school building, even if they must be reduced to part-time positions.
People lined up to speak to the board about the ADs, but also about the role of sports and other extra curricular activities in education. Do you think activities are important in the educational experience? If so, how much? Would you cut them all before cutting any academic program? What should the district do?
I firmly believe that activities are important in the educational experience. If I was on the school board, I might want to ask students, faculty, staff, and taxpayers to explain to me, “How should the District measure the value of activities and instruction and assign a dollar amount to them? How can we measure the social and economic value of activities and instruction so that necessary funding cuts do not diminish the value the students derive from both?” It seems to me that’s the issue the Board faces.
Comment by Bill — January 13, 2009 @ 9:58 am
As with a tasty desert after a meal, it would be nice to keep the activities. BUT we are in a recession folks. The meal is more important than the treat!
Comment by concerned citizen — January 13, 2009 @ 11:29 am
Who needs High School sports when we can watch school district employees turf-guarding during a recession? Lots of game-play action there. Let’s do a play-by-play for the Channel 19 version of the meeting!
Comment by Dan — January 13, 2009 @ 11:48 am
When I arrived at the auditorium for the meeting, the school district’s film crew appeared to be having some difficulty patching audio into their camcorders from the auditorium’s sound system. If they ended up using their on-camera mics, the broadcast audio may not be as clear as everyone would wish.
Comment by Bill — January 13, 2009 @ 11:55 am
I think high school athletic activities have gotten out of balance with the education program just as they have in colleges and universities. The tail is wagging the dog. High school athletics could be severely reduced with no real impact on the quality of the education program or affect to graduation rates. Claims to the contrary at last night’s meeting are not supported by credible statistics. The statistics used by one presenter last night were totally bogus. Student morale might suffer – I grant that.
Comment by CdACanuck — January 13, 2009 @ 4:29 pm
CdACanuck,
I, too, questioned Eric Louis’ assertion that graduation rates will suffer without an AD in each building. Experts (see 1/ and 2/ for example) can’t even agree on how to measure graduation rates, so that assertion needed more substantiation. He may have been correct, but he did not present adequate proof to the audience.
Contrary to the very misleading headline in the Tuesday Coeur d’Alene Press, not everyone who attended the meeting oppose some of the District’s proposed budget cuts.
Comment by Bill — January 14, 2009 @ 8:22 am