After an often grueling (depending on your vantage point) 2 1/2 hours, last night the school board voted 5-2 to restore sanity to the athletic fees assessed for hockey.Of course, the dissenting votes belonged to John ("Swimming is a lifelong activity; the same can't be said for hockey") Whalen and Caren (" I don't know what's in my mind!") Diedrich. No surprise there.
Ultimately the 5 board members voted the way they did out of fairness and equity.
Why should hockey players be "charged" for ice time when the cost of building and maintaining the field house and multiple sports fields is not "charged" to other programs? Sorry, Mr. Whalen, but neither Ashley field nor Summit field are used for PE.
REDUCING HOCKEY FEES
87 HUNDRED Dollars: cost of reducing hockey feesHell...just a few years back the district spent about $8700 a year on pizza for their staff meetings.
900 THOUSAND dollars: 2011-12 budget surplus
73 MILLION dollars: 2012-13 SPASD budget
It's do-able people
...it makes sense
...and it's the right thing to do
There are roughly 30 kids playing hockey now.
That means that reducing the fee from $375 down to $85 (the same Tier III as baseball, football, basketball and soccer) "cost" the district exactly $8,700.
This school district just completed a "tough" year with at least $900,000 dollar surplus.
Surely we could "find" $8,700 somewhere in a $73,000,000 budget in the name of equity...and perhaps giving more kids an affordable opportunity to play hockey.
Five board member thought so: John Welke led the charge, with a supporting cast of Jill Camber Davidson, Tom Weber, Mike Krachey, and Steve Schroeder.
Thank them.
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