Scrambling To Save Middle School Sports
There are currently 13 sports at CMS’ middle school level, spread out over three seasons: Fall sports include football, girls softball, girls volleyball, golf, and cheerleading; Winter sports include boys basketball, girls basketball and cheerleading; Spring sports include baseball, boys soccer, girls soccer, boys track and field, and girls track and field.
Under a proposal currently being huddled, CMS would only offer six middle school sports programs – two for each season and retaining an overall equal balance of programs offered for boys and girls.
By dropping the number of available sports programs from 13 to 6, CMS could save about $323,000, according to Athletics Director Vicki Hamilton. While declining to identify which of the middle school sports programs were potentially on the chopping block, Hamilton said the determination could be made based on past and current participation levels for the various programs.
Even coupled with additional revenue gained from enhanced gate receipts, however, the pruned sports offerings would come up $614,000 shy of the $1.2 million budget shortfall for middle school athletics. The proposal, though, isn’t ultimately designed to cover that shortfall, Hamilton said.
“It’s about how we keep some programs and still are able to give something back to the pot, so to speak,” she said.
A playbook that includes limited athletic options for middle schoolers isn’t ideal, White said, but faced with difficult budget realities it might be the only option.
“I will not go away in insisting we find a way to at least keep them alive,” White says. “If they go away completely this year, I think they would go away forever.”
Assuming the ultimate touchdown would be to save all middle school athletics, there are, of course, plenty of places to look outside the lines for revenue. CMS-TV, for example, costs the district about $400,000 a year to operate. That public relations nicety is still included in Gorman’s budget scenarios, where middle schools sports get the ax.
Speaking of outside the lines, Gorman recently received a quarter-million-dollar grant from the C.D. Spangler Foundation. The loot is to be used for the superintendent’s “personal growth and development” or as he sees fit to help the district.
Would Gorman be willing to fork over a chunk of the grant to help save middle school athletics? While he didn’t rule it completely out of play, Gorman said he didn’t think sports fell under the intended uses or allowances of the grant.
“It’s something I’d have to look into,” Gorman said.
In the meantime, CMS and the Board of Education will continue to double-dribble their way through the budget season.
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