School Board Discusses JH Sports Sharing

SHARE WITH J-S OR GO IT ALONE NEXT SEASON?

School officials continue to deal with the thorny issue of school sports as East Greene moves forward on its whole grade sharing with Jefferson-Scranton in 2012-13.

The issue of middle school sports as a stand-alone program was the topic under discussion at an East Greene school board work session held Jan. 11 at the ICN room in the Grand Junction building. Subtext to that discussion was keeping high school sports as a separate entity for next school year and closing the Rippey elementary building.

School board members assured a gathering of 21 interested parents and patrons of the district that we would maintain high school sports here for at least one year. That issue surfaced when the associations that govern boys and girls high school sports in Iowa informed East Greene school officials in the fall that with our students attending high school next year in Jefferson, we are no longer considered a sanctioned high school. Therefore, we could not offer sports.

Superintendent Mike Harter said he had been informed differently by the State Department of Education in the process leading up to the vote to sign a whole grade sharing agreement with Jefferson-Scranton last summer. Both districts concurred that each would offer its own sports program for the two academic years covered by the agreement, which is the agreement both districts approved.

Harter informed the board in late 2011 of a compromise proposal where East Greene will offer its students a class in the Grand Junction building either at the beginning or end of the day next year taught by an East Greene teacher.

That appears to have passed muster with Iowa High School Athletic Association, as East Greene has been included in next season’s 8-Man football district assignments. EG has been assigned to District 6, comprised of nine teams: Adair-Casey, Ankeny Christian Academy, Colo-Nesco, East Greene, East Union (Afton), Grandview Park Baptist (Des Moines), Lamoni, Mormon Trail (Garden Grove) and Murray.

So the continuation of sports means the Rippey gym will be used next year—as in past years—for varsity and JV basketball and varsity, JV and junior high volleyball.

However, students will no longer attend classes at Rippey. Students in PreK through 4^th will relocate from Rippey to Grand Junction while the 5^th and 6^th grade students from both EG and JS will attend classes in Grand Junction. The board held a public hearing on the topic in the Rippey gym on Jan. 18 with understanding that no decision would be made that night on closing the building and relocating elementary classrooms to Grand Junction. The topic is on the agenda for this month’s regular school board meeting.

Driving that decision is the need to make both buildings accessible to the handicapped and the fact that declining enrollments the last decade preclude the need to have two buildings, both of which would house elementary students.

As discussion moved forward in the fall on next year’s sports and the current winter basketball season got underway, the low number of girls in high school and junior high school sports became apparent. East Greene has a considerable disparity between the number of boys versus girls enrolled in school which is reflected in participation levels in sports. The high school girls basketball team (varsity and junior varsity) consists of just two upperclassmen (both juniors), four sophomores and four freshmen. That is the entire team—10 members. For a period of time the junior high girls had just six basketball players in uniform. At most, there were nine, and of those nine, all but one were eighth graders.

Red flags went up quickly over the ability to field a full junior high girls team next year if there will be just one holdover going from seventh to eighth grade. The number of interested sixth grade girls participating next year was on the table for discussion. According to a coach at the meeting, five sixth grade girls have expressed interest in basketball next season as seventh graders.

That may not be enough—either for a full-range of participation in games (six total for seventh and eighth grades) or to placate parents concerned that too few girls mean a team possibly could not take the court as the season progresses due to illness or possible injuries.

Some parents have already indicated their support to have our junior high share sports with Jefferson-Scranton. The students will be attending classes together each day in the middle school building in Jefferson. However, they will be East Greene students. If there is no combined sports program, the families who want their junior high age students to participate in sports with Jefferson-Scranton would have to open enroll. The deadline for 2012-13 is March 1, 2012.

“Three or four families have told me they will open enroll [to another district] for sports, not because of it,” said Marc Hoffman, board president.  “I would love to push the problem off and let it take its course. The No. 1 topic is giving the junior high an answer soon. The No. 2 topic is answering the open enrollment deadline, because they might leave.”

Board members David Tipton and Rich Gordon saw it differently. Tipton said he didn’t want to see East Greene lose sports. He asked what happens if down the line a reorganization vote here fails. “Then what do we do? I understand we have a limited number of girls—and those numbers aren’t going to change—but I can’t see doing it yet.”

He countered Hoffman by noting he too has had discussions with parents and if we don’t offer sports here, they will open enroll out—but not to Jefferson-Scranton. “They said they won’t go west, but will go east.” He indicated that the parents will keep their students here at East Greene, if we keep junior high sports.

Gordon noted “we did a survey and made a decision as board to offer a sports program at East Greene for two years.”

Harter provided figures on the costs and revenues of each sport as well as class lists so the board could see the number of students in each grade and their participation levels in the various sports offered by East Greene.

At issue is the ratio of boys to girls enrolled at East Greene. Junior high is projected to have 56 total students in seventh and eighth grades next year, but only 13 of them are girls. The breakdown for 2012-13 is 27 boys and 5 girls in eighth grade and 16 boys and 8 girls in seventh grade.

Tim Bardole, the longest-serving board member and former board president, said “next year, with whole grade sharing, would be a good time to start the junior high girls sport sharing. There’s a lot of logic to it, but I’m not saying that’s what we should do.”

Bardole also seems to have a case of “buyer’s remorse” over the district’s go-it-alone and stay independent approach the last few years. “With two kids now playing sports in college—knowing what I do now—they would have been better off in a bigger school.” He did not elaborate on whether his daughter Cassie, a junior who is on the varsity at Simpson College in Indianola, or his son Schyler, a freshmen who plays football at Central College in Pella, would have been better prepared athletically or academically—or both.

Bardole noted that the “decisions made as a board member aren’t often in the best interest of our own children.”

He and Hoffman were clearly leaning in favor of beginning junior high sports sharing next year—both boys and girls. “We should not separate boys and girls,” said Bardole. “If one has to go, the other has to go. Let’s be proactive. Let’s have that date set.”

“We have to develop a plan, and maybe we do have enough girls to field a team,” said Hoffman, “but are we doing what’s best for them?” He further made the point that in our high school girls sports program, “we borrow from the JV to play varsity.” It was the same situation three years ago with high school 8-man football. “We didn’t have a JV program because we needed some of those players for the varsity,” he recalled. “That was unfortunate for the JV kids who came to practice every day, took care of their equipment, kept their grades up, and looked forward to playing a JV game. When that time came, we said, ‘sorry, we don’t have a game for you to play.’”

Hoffman added, “we need to have consideration for all kids—those in kindergarten, 9^th grade, 12^th grade—I agree for high school we need to have a last season—but looking down-range, [as a board] we are duty-bound for the kids in the 3d grade.”

Hoffman, Gordon and Tipton each have children in both high school and junior high, while Bardole is the parent of a high school student. Some of the board members’ children participate in sports, some don’t. This year, East Greene is sharing vocal and instrumental music with Jefferson-Scranton, and wrestling has also been made available the last few years to boys interested in participating on the Jefferson-Scranton team.

All of the East Greene board members are also graduates of East Greene, including newest member Ashley Johnston. All of them are also natives of Grand Junction and Rippey. So the decisions to phase out East Greene as a separate high school and use of the elementary school building in Rippey have personal impact.

Johnston, who is the parent of two students in the lower grades, echoed Hoffman’s comment about needing a farewell season of East Greene high school sports, but she made note of the low numbers for girls in addition to the impact across the high school and junior high school student body. “I feel bad for kids not in sports to have to come back [to the Grand Junction building] for one class.”

Hoffman concurred, noting the “public concerns—why would we do for the minority that which affects the majority? We have a 40% participation in sports.”