Does ANYBODY Review What Comes out of the Athletic Dept?

We had to start somewhere in reviewing these budget proposals...what better place than athletics.  If you glance at the budget proposals most include some level of detail and rationale.  Jim McClowry's do not.  We got bupkis.

We happen to have some inside information that, following the poor information presented regarding hockey fees, that any future reports to be presented by Mr. McClowry would be reviewed by the entire management team.  Did they?  Either way, the Management Team comes off looking poorly here because either (A) they reviewed--and approved--this proposal, or (B) they didn't review it and let it go to the public as is (again).

How can we trust ANY budget information coming out of the district when such poor quality reports such as this are released?  This district if going to need an 8th elementary school within 4-5 years and that will cost $18-20 M (or more).  Did anyone notice that most of the building referenda got slammed last week?  If one wants this community to support another big ticket venture, one might want to foc on putting one best and most quality foot forward when it comes to information.

And who exactly IS the district "Management Team"?  We assume it would include Tim Culver, Phil Frei, and Alice Murphy.  One would hope that HR Director Annette Mikula is also part of the team.  But that makes only 4 and most teams have an odd number to ensure no tie votes.  Is there a 5th?  Perhaps Student Services Manager Jennifer Apodaca?

Our next question is...do they vote on issues like this?  Knowing these folks, SOME of them HAD to take issue with Mr. McClowry's report.  Did they simply get over-ruled?  Really?  Someone actually thought the Athletics and Actvities Budget Proposals were well written and supported by data?  Or did some members of the Team simply not read it (and we can understand why)?

See attached ( Non-existent ) data
Two out of Jimmy Mac's 4 budget proposals, in response to the instruction, "2. Please provide data supporting your rationale for this proposal." were annotated with "See attached data".  Yet there was no data attached...at least any data that remotely responded to the directive.

Really?  Nobody caught that?  Who's responsible?  (ahem...Tim Culver)

Let's take only the left front wheel instead of a complete  turn key operation
Mr. McClowry...the district?....is proposing to add girls varsity lacrosse next spring.  Yippeee.  Seriously ...that's great.  And there's even a proposal to add boys varsity lacrosse th year after.  But hat about JV?  Freshmen? Lacrosse is by and large the number one growing sport in the country (although Jimmy Mac's report includes nothing about that).  It already would be better populated than several existing school sponsored sports...but we'll take just girls varsity and then boys varsity?  Really?

From the Why Don't We Show Growth Numbers That Don'T Support Our Proposal Dept.
...and then we have the request to add two assistant coaches each for swimming and cross country. Swimming...we get  The data bears that out.   But just look at the cross country data.   It does not support ANY additional coaches!

McClowry Needs Help
Out personal favorite is batting in the leadoff position.  In which McClowry asks for a half FTE (at a hefty salary) an Assistant Athletics and Activities Director.  Mr. McClowry has publicly stated that he's really, really busy.

At .50 FTE, the salary would range from $25,625-$31,356. Some administrative responsibilities would include:
Evaluating staff, accessing facility and equipment needs, creating and facilitating professional development programs, administering large multi-team events and scheduling JV and 9th grade nonconference athletic events.

Hmmm... not seeing much about activities there?

We hear Bon Jovi's releasing an updated version of one of their old hits.  It will be called "You Give SP A Bad Name".

What did hockey & golf get?

Monday July 30 is the big school board work study meeting on atheltics and activities:

See the agenda and materials

This all started with Athletic Director McClowry proposing to raise all athletics fees a little bit ($40 max) EXCEPT for hockey.  The hockey kids--girls and boys--got poked with a very sharp stick to the tune of a $350 increase from $200 to $550.

As justification,  Mr. McClowry verbally presented some cherry-picked facts that suggested we were the only district NOT charging that much.  He alluded to the incredible cost of ice time.  We recall him using a figure of $30,000 or more.  The real number seems to be closer to $22K.

10 E 410 940 162223 000 BOYS ICE HOCKEY DUES AND FEES GENERAL 22,200.00

What we want to know is this:
As part of the new high school referendum, virtually every sport BUT hockey and golf got complete new "digs".   They got zip. Zero. Zilch. Nada.  So...if the taxpayers can cover that and field maintenance, why aren't we covering (taking out of the equation)  ice time and greens fees?

Isn't this all about equity, Dr. Culver?
Or do we just like skewing the data to make a point?


Sorry to say folks, but SP-EYE doesn't even have a dog in this fight.  We're not hockey fans.  But we believe in equity and fairness...and it's not fair to raise the hockey fees one iota.

Entitlement, Sense of????

Honestly.
Thanks to those who mentioned the existence of this special parking spot for SPHS Athletics Director Jim McClowry right t the gate to Summit field.  Another hint of preference for baseball?

Note that there is no sign indicating "Reserved Parking for SPHS Principal"....although more to come on the subject.

Mushroom Cloud of Questions Looms Over McClowry

A few weeks back, Athletics and Activities Director Jim McClowry brought forth his...well...jumble of personal notes... supporting a 275% increase in athletic fees for hockey.   The board approved those fees, but, based on comments, it seemed like that decision was not final; it was pending the outcome of a full report to the Finance Committee on June 25th.

Which never happened.

What Mr. Clowry should have learned by now is that his lack of public information and subsequent delay results only in idle fingers.  And idle fingers tend to seek out the Internet to find information on their own.  And that never bodes well.

Initially our quest was to rebut some of the data McClowry presented to support the huge increase to hockey fees.  He raised the cost of ice time, which is a valid issue.  But what he didn't offer was the cost to maintain other sports that he seems to favor.  What is the cost of Ashley Field maintenance?  We have been told as much as $60,000 per year (but have since learned it's only $15,000/year).   But...what other sports than football is Ashley Field used for?   That's a hefty cost for 5-6 games per year.

And what about all that equipment used by football.  Blocking sleds?  Helmets?  Pads.  How much did they cost?  How long do they last?  How much will replacement cost be?  Who's paying for that?  These are all good questions, but we want to talk about some other things that popped out of Google.

Did anyone know that Mr McClowry is on the Board of Directors for Sun Prairie Little League?  We're not saying it's a bad thing.  But is it the only sport with a board on which he sits?  We checked youth football...nope.  We're not going to waste any time checking hockey.  It's clear he's no fan of hockey.  Does THAT pose a problem for someone who is supposed to equally represent ALL sports/activities?  Was that the best decision?  Is it appropriate?  A conflict of interest?

And what about using his school district e-mail as his contact information for little league?  We keep hearing how busy Mr. McClowry is.  We wonder how much of his district time involves Little League matters.  Varsity baseball coach Rob Hamilton is also on the board of directors (which makes sense a s a feeder program).  But coach Hamilton is a model for integrity.  He uses a private e-mail address.  Hmmmm.

Oh...and then we found very interesting the fact that Mr. McClowry has quite frequently reserved the JV baseball diamond (behind CHUMS, field D) for "McClowry Baseball Practice".  Huh?  What's that.  Doing a little digging, we found that McClowry coaches a ....wait for it...BASEBALL team.  Gee...guess we don't anticipate any big increases in baseball fees!

But what of using this field?  Are other teams in his league allowed to use that field??  In fact, we hear some rumblings in the community that this field is not in the greatest shape and the district is trying to limit the volume of use.   Guess that doesn't apply to Team McClowry...right?

There is district policy for using these fields.  And it involves paying a rental fee or "donation in kind".  Is McClowry paying these fees?  Or just piggy-backing on the blanket Little League donation in kind?

We have a few concerns.  And a LOT of questions that seem to be begging for answers.