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Mansfield (Massachusetts) Cuts All High School Sports

RJMRJMHSBaseballWeb member since 2007
From boston.com (Boston Globe)

Mansfield votes to eliminate high school sports
Committee moves to close massive budget shortfall

By Christine Legere
Globe Correspondent / April 15, 2010

MANSFIELD — Last month, local residents rallied behind the Mansfield High girls and boys basketball teams, as each battled at TD Garden for the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association’s South Sectional title. The girls picked up the win, while the boys fell just short.

But that kind of excitement may not return any time soon: The town’s school committee has decided to eliminate all high school sports as part of a final push to close a massive fiscal 2011 budget gap.

“It was not a simple vote or a happy vote,’’ Jean Miller, chairwoman of the School Committee, said yesterday. “We have a wonderful athletics program here, but in the end, our responsibility is for academics. We had been told by selectmen we needed to present a balanced budget.’’

Other communities have threatened to cut high school sports — or other popular programs — over the last few years, but backed off after balancing the books with other cuts or new taxes. Mansfield officials insist their move is not a ploy, though they were bracing for a packed budget forum scheduled last night.

In Mansfield, 800 of the 1,500 high school students play on at least one sports team.

Julie Cline’s daughter, Sara, a sophomore, plays s****r in the fall, runs indoor track in the winter, and plays softball in the spring. “She just told me about the cuts as she was getting ready to go to a softball game,’’ Cline said. “Her world will be rocked in a bad way by this.’’

A total of 44 positions, many of them teachers, have been cut from next year’s budget.

But the elimination of athletics is a major attention grabber.

The elimination of athletics will save $650,000 from a budget that started $3.6 million in the red, said Brenda Hodges, Mansfield school superintendent. “The deficit was so large we had little choice,’’ Hodges said. “In the end, you have to say, ‘What is education all about?’ Still, I never thought I would see a time when we would have to cut sports.’’

Earlier in budget discussions, there was talk of doing away with freshmen sports and charging participation fees for upper-grade athletic teams. When Hodges said that approach would not generate enough money, the committee decided to cut the full program.

“When you have to cut that deep to balance the budget, it obviously resonates with the public,’’ said Ed Vozzella, the school department’s business director.

Even though school administrators admit they have been prodding the Board of Selectmen to put a property tax increase before voters this spring to bolster the school budget, Miller stressed the sports program cut is no ploy.

“It was with much pain and upset that we cut all the extracurricular,’’ Miller said. “It wasn’t just sports. It’s drama, music, and chorus, too.’’

Ann Baldwin, Selectmen chairwoman, expressed skepticism about the elimination of high school sports yesterday.

“If they are truly eliminating all sports, why did they hire an athletic director last night, right before they voted to eliminate sports?’’ Baldwin said about the appointment of Joe Russo from acting AD to permanent..

She said her board would discuss whether to place the override before voters when they meet at the end of the week. Board members have said they would not agree to put an override before the public until they see some long-term plan.

Selectman George Dentino said he would like to know the size of the override being requested.

“I’m not for an override, but I at least want to see what the number is,’’ Dentino said. Regarding the sports cut, he said, “I hope this isn’t a chess game.’’

Joe Maruszczak, principal of Mansfield High, said rumors of the impending sports cuts spread quickly yesterday.

“As the day went along, it started to percolate more,’’ he said. “Obviously, they are very upset.’’

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RJMRJMHSBaseballWeb member since 2007
Mansfield has been threatening to cut sports for five years. This is Politics 101. Declare it gone, outrage ensues, negotiation starts to fix the situation. It's possible MHS may not have sports next year. But I wouldn't say it's over until the final FY11 budget is approved by the board.

In Massachusetts the school district is tied directly to town government. Anyone want to bet there's a proposal to raise property taxes at the next town meeting to "save" high school sports?
Last edited by RJM
F 3FingeredGlove1,000+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by Eyeontheball:
Is there anything inherently wrong with paying increased taxes to support high school sports?

No. After all, most schools districts across the country have for years collected enough taxes to fund sports. Our taxes have "always" been higher so that we can fund sports.

On the other hand, there is nothing inherently wrong with not funding sports (and a lot of other activities).

It depends on what the entire voting base wants to do.
LD LWN Dad100+ posts
Backgound-Parents were teachers.

There are constant discussions about how we as a country have gotten behind other countries in technology, healthcare, whatever. The answer to getting back on top is education. We are at this site becuase of athletics. The overriding response to any one asking about moving on to higher levels of baseball is "What are the grades?" The good grades come from good teachers. What is happening with these cutbacks nation wide will be that the teaching profession will not be getting the quality individauls that I have seen come into the profession lately. This is a nation wide problem and needs to be addressed. The neighboring grade school district has moved to cut all extracalicural activies for next year. This was a school district that had one of the lowest per pupil rates in the Chicagoland area. There had not been a tax increase for the district in 18 years. The state of Illinois has just stopped making promised payments and school districts now don't expect to get their state money.

Activities tend to keep students in school and involved. Loose the activities and you will loose a proportion of the student body. The part of the student body that you will loose will cost the tax payers for many years because they will not be employable at a living wage. This is a real situation that needs to be looked at from a far longer range set of eyes than how do we meet next years budget.

I don't have the answers I just see more problems coming.
C CELTDAD10+ posts
I'm not sure that cutting salaries of teachers or sports programs are the only answer. Why cant people look at the waste in government first before looking to cut any school cost before entitlement programs for many undeserving first. I'f we start to cut sports programs we will loose many students that stay for sport and more who will stay in worse physical shape than need be. The cost for this will be more in the future in health consequences than the cost today will be. What makes me so angry is ALL the politicians saying they are for youth fitness. What BS and thats what should make us all very angry at them. Don't let them take us for fools, yelling at each other to cut from each other in school programs. Turn your anger at the real cause, full off S*** politics.
zombywoofzombywoof1,000+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by RJM:
One of the problems in Massachusetts is exorbitant retirement pensions for government workers are starting to eat away at annual budgets.


Same problem in NJ. If any politician had the nads to fix what's wrong in this state, this is where they should start, but it'll never happen. All you gotta do is look up the Plainfield NJ school system and 2 administrators who were hired from Miami by their friend who happens to be the schools superintendant. 2 unqualified cronies who got 6-figure salaries and more importantly, a ride on the pension gravy train. These hack politicians use these positions to get their family and friends on the job so they can suck the pension dry. It's bad and while the state is cuttinfg school budgets, the schools are blaming the governor because he's earting into their golden parachute and the BOE's & teachers unions response to the taxpayers is that even though the residents in NJ are tapped, they're just gonna have to find away to come up with the money. Very arrogant considering the tapyers ARE spent and the economy is screwed up badly.
Last edited by zombywoof
B Blprkfrnks100+ posts
I went to my daughter's track meet the other day where about 100-200 kids were competing. To get there I passed a swim meet, and a tennis match, and could see 2 softball teams and 3 baseball teams practicing. I'm sure inside the gym there were volleyball teams and at the local golf course there were golfers parcticing or competing. I was amazed at how many kids were doing things that day beside hanging out or sitting at home. And that was just sports. There are multiple other great afterschool activities going on that I have no involvement in. I am a huge advocate for extra curricular involvement.

That said, school budgets need to consider students' academics and teachers first. I'm in California, where we are facing huge budget issues, and jemaz, Arizona is right behind us, so you might need to be moving. There is no easy solution to this, but here are some of my ideas.

1. The facilities are already at the schools, so discontinuing sports is creating a huge waste of already established resources. The answer needs to be privatizing sports into the local rec leagues, and charging a player fee to maintain facilities. In baseball, that means American Legion, Senior Babe Ruth, or Little League takes over. I expect to see this at schools that discontinue sports.

2. Maybe varsity sports can stay, and the local leagues take the non-varsity players. These non-varsity players could go to a 6th period PE class that is taught by the varsity coaches. The coach can teach them how to play in the schools varsity program, and the kids can prove their merit by their attitude and effort in class.

3. The other obvious answer is to charge kids to play HS sports. This may cause a hardship for some, but maybe those families that can't pay can be required to work the gates and snackbar or fundraisers to earn their way to play.

We haven't reached the point of cancelling sports at our school. But it is coming, and I know the value of keeping the kids involved as do many other parents. This is one thing that involved parents can find a way to fix, and moving away will not be my solution. We will find a way to make it happen, and I think the same will happen in Mass.
zombywoofzombywoof1,000+ posts
quote:
Originally posted by LAball:
The voucher program would have been great if it passed but the strong teachers union shot it down. Then parents cant vote with there money because you have little to no choices in public schools.


School vouchers are a terrible idea. They're funded by the government which would take more tax dollars away from the public schools while these voucher schools can privatize. It's bad enough that poor school districts suck most of the money in from the state because the suburban schools pay for the failing public schools while getting shortchanged to cover these failing schools.

Instead of creating unneeded charter schools, what about firing the overpaid-do-nothing administration and bloat at these districts and just maybe the parents of these cities should grab control of their little-out-of--control-babies who never do no wrong but have no control over their kids and let them run wild who have no interest in learning The reason those public schools are successful is because the parents in these school districts as a whole take an interest in their kids and generally do what they have to do to give their kids the best shot to succeed in school.

I agree school reform is definitely a major need and the teachers union are way to powerful and claim they "do it for the kids", but that's all bullspit. It's about what's in it for them.

It's about time people wake up and go vote on school elections. Everybody bitches and moans but most peeps have no clue when their local school board elections are and can vote out the problem. Until then, the problem will never get fixed.

All school vouchers do is throw the money in another direction without fixing the real problem.

Charter schools should not be funded by the government. They should be prvately funded.
Last edited by zombywoof
RJMRJMHSBaseballWeb member since 2007
quote:
The other obvious answer is to charge kids to play HS sports.
There are many towns in Massachusetts already doing this. There are places it can cost up to $1,000 to play football or hockey. Imagine having two boys playing football and hockey. In less affluent towns booster clubs are chasing down businesses for money.
RJMRJMHSBaseballWeb member since 2007
Politics 102: Tranfer funds from another town account. Then raise taxes after "saving" the kids. What a relief! Now that we've saved the kids having taxes raised isn't such a big deal. It took two days to save sports. <--- sarcasm The problem is the wasting of money in government.

---------------------------------------------------

Mansfield will transfer funds to save school sports
By Travis Andersen Globe Staff / April 17, 2010

Mansfield officials have reached a deal to save high school sports and other clubs in the next fiscal year.

Jean Miller, chairwoman of the School Committee, said that the Board of Selectmen voted last night to transfer about $890,000 from town coffers to the school budget for fiscal 2011, which begins on July 1.

In return, the committee will remove a property tax override vote from next month’s Town Meeting agenda. And, Miller said, the committee will reject motions from the public to transfer more funds from the town budget to schools.

The district made headlines this week when the School Committee voted to cut high school sports and clubs to help plug a $3.6 million deficit, prompting an outcry from parents and students in a district where 800 of the 1,500 high school students play at least one sport.

Miller called the deal a “band-aid’’ to keep sports and clubs afloat in the next school year.

“It’s something that gets us through,’’ Miller said. “And hopefully we can continue to negotiate with the unions to get some concessions on their part, particularly in regard to health care.’’

She said that as part of the agreement reached yesterday, the committee will set a fee for all sports and clubs. That fee has not been determined, she said.

Miller added that the $890,000 is from several sources on the town side, such as the snowplow fund and various unfunded liabilities. She said that the money would not come from the rainy day fund, which will protect the town’s bond rating.

Miller noted that the fund transfer will not force additional staff reductions. A total of 44 positions, many of them teachers, were cut from next year’s budget.

Globe Correspondent Christine Legere contributed to this report.
Last edited by RJM
RJMRJMHSBaseballWeb member since 2007
From bostonherald.com ... note: this is an editorial

Mansfield pulls the same old spring tax scam
By Howie Carr Sunday, April 18, 2010

This is how you know it’s spring in Massachusetts - the first town threatens to shut down the high school football program unless the voters agree to a property-tax hike.

It’s as predictable as the Boston Marathon gridlock tomorrow. It’s right out of the playbook - the teachers’ union playbook.

This year the town of Mansfield seems to have opened the season. All the stories run together after a while: one side (the school committee) insisting that “this is not a ploy” while the other side (the board of selectmen) scoffs, saying it’s just a “chess game.”

Usually, the selectmen fold, and a Prop 2 override goes onto the ballot. It’s . . . for the children. The hard-pressed taxpayers vote it down in the spring and in some towns they just reschedule a second vote - in July, on a Saturday, when everybody’s at the beach.

Of course, sometimes the school committees and their union pals overplay their hand. For instance, it’s always a bad move to be grabbing state building funds - say, $3 million - to upgrade the high school football field while simultaneously claiming you’re about to eliminate the grid program. That grift has been tried in MetroWest.

The Mansfield School Committee committed a tactical error this week by upgrading the acting high school athletic director to permanent just before they started talking about eliminating athletics.

It’s always important to describe the cuts as “unprecedented,” which, of course, they’re not. Here’s a headline from 1989: “Athletics, clubs get the ax at schools.”

The rationale is, these towns have “fixed costs.” That’s what they call them in the public sector. You and I call them “union sweetheart deals.” None of these municipal workers wants to go into the less Cadillac state health insurance plan, and changes are usually negotiable under their contracts.

In the Dreaded Private Sector, you know how such an impasse would be handled. The bosses would say: OK, if you want to keep those nice bennies, we’ll have to start laying you guys off from the bottom of the seniority list. We’ll have to hit everybody who’s been hired since, oh, 1998.

Which in the towns might mean that 60-year-old teachers would be back working as lunch monitors in the cafeteria. Pretty soon, a 5 percent increase in health premiums wouldn’t look so bad.

But in the towns, it’s so much easier to run around crying “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!”

The local pols begin this annual rite of spring by going after services that matter to voters. If they threatened to lay off three assistant deputy associate senior human-resource administrators and take away their cars and gas credit cards, the taxpayers would rejoice.

Instead they make ominous noises about closing a police station or a firehouse. They reduce the hours at the dump or end garbage pickup altogether. Most of all, they threaten the football team.

If this happened on Thanksgiving, the refs would throw a penalty on the town hacks. For unsportmanslike conduct against the taxpayers.

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