And so it begins...
Original Post
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Addressing just the sports related issues...
This is "proposed". I'm curious to see what actually occurs. Unless things are quite different in that specific area, I am surprised that football would be part of the mix. It is generally the only HS sport, along with maybe basketball, that comes out in the black. In fact, for us, between the gate and significant concession income, football pays for several other sports to exist. Perhaps this is just a line item to get people to take serious note of the cuts coming.
At our football games, we have V cheer, JV cheer, youth FB cheer, dance (with different costume every week) and band all there to "cheer" and make noise for the home team. In times of serious budget cut, this is certainly not all necessary.
Like so many others, I suspect the future of HS football is in jeopardy due, primarily, to the concussion issue but not budget cuts.
All freshmen sports should be first to go. Indoor AND outdoor track are not both necessary. I am curious to know what "modified sports" are. I would also be curious to hear how deeply they dug into the efficiencies of the sports programs before just targeting groups. League alignment for travel sense, transportation methods (vans vs buses), uniform/equipment rotation and simplification, and other areas have potential for significant savings without cutting as many programs. This has made huge difference in some school districts.
Modified sports are what comes before JV, basically middle school sports. Goes Varsity, JV, Modified in NY I believe. Don't think they have what is considered Freshman teams at least from what I can remember growing up.
C, you've read my mind.Here if you had to get rid of activities FB would be the very LAST thing to go.The drama dept. next..I was involved with youth FB and saw first hand the $ brought in for home games.For us (our school only) considering we are talking FB the $ generated have to be tremendous.With the bigger games the split the pot can push a grand.Thats from a 600 +/- student school.5$ to get inx2000 on a slow game. Along with a well run conscsesions.Thats were the real profit is at.
Football in New York is NOT a big deal compared to the rest of the country. There is virtually no revenue generated vs. $50k+ cost. Modified Sports are Middle School sports. I was never sure why they existed in the first place.
I'm in NY and we don't charge admission to any of the sports (games) so there is no revenue from football. The only freshman sport we had at our HS was baseball and that was cut this year although the coach told me that was a numbers issue (players) as much as a budget issue. We have modified sports but it's on the chopping block in this year's budget review. Luckily my 8th grader was able to play football, basketball and baseball in what looks like our last year of modified sports.
As far as why modified sports exist I'd say that participation wise our HS gets probably the biggest bang for it's buck with modified sports. You get the players involved earlier, it's their first taste of "real" sports with the potential for cuts and zero parent involvement and it gives them something to do every day after school. We had 70 kids on the football team, 20 on the basketball team and I haven't seen the baseball team yet but I'm sure they have a lot. Modified starts later than HS sports so their first game isn't until next week. The cost is really a drop in the over all budget bucket. They pay the coaches next to nothing, baseball and basketball equipment isn't much for the school and they have the football equipment (not sure how often they update it). The biggest issue I have seen with Modified and even the Freshman baseball team was not many schools have those programs any more because of budget issues - so we had to travel all over to find games.
Reading through a second time, I'm also trying to figure out...
The budget will be voted on by the public. "If voters defeat the budget, the school board will be given three options. They can put a revised budget up for a second vote, put the same budget up for a second vote or move directly to a contingency budget. A contingency budget would require the district to go back to the 2015-16 tax levy, which would require the district to cut an additional $704,246 from the budget."
With the contingency budget, does that mean they would have to cut an additional $700K from the proposed $3M cut or just cut additional $700K from the previous '15-'16 budget?
If the latter, this whole district proposal could just be a move to force this option, which is much more easily attainable and would make the board out to be hero's, at least for the short term. "Instead of cutting A-Z, we were able to reduce the cuts to just A-E! You are welcome very much!"
I get this is just me.It seems in a state like NY.with all the $$ that goes thru the city.That theres NOT a penny or two.(I literally mean penny or two) Taken out of a per grand or 10 grand.In the trading/transaction/bonds whatever to help fund education for the whole state.From everything I read tax wise its at or right at the top.Nothing to help out schools? Where the $$
If NY started to tax each trading transaction then very shortly there would be no trading transactions taking place in New York. Most actually take place on servers in NJ anyways.
I hate to break it to you, and I apologize to some in advance, but $360,000 on a budget hole of $5,000,000 is like a fly on an elephant's a$$. You have to go where the real money is and that is in personnel. Sports is just used as leverage.
I am sorry should have made my statement more clear.not suggesting any new taxas.Just surprizes me that something wasn't already IN PLAY going back for as long as anyone remembers.thats what I meant.
But you have free healthcare . . . .
MKbaseballdad posted:I'm in NY and we don't charge admission to any of the sports (games) so there is no revenue from football. The only freshman sport we had at our HS was baseball and that was cut this year although the coach told me that was a numbers issue (players) as much as a budget issue. We have modified sports but it's on the chopping block in this year's budget review. Luckily my 8th grader was able to play football, basketball and baseball in what looks like our last year of modified sports.
As far as why modified sports exist I'd say that participation wise our HS gets probably the biggest bang for it's buck with modified sports. You get the players involved earlier, it's their first taste of "real" sports with the potential for cuts and zero parent involvement and it gives them something to do every day after school. We had 70 kids on the football team, 20 on the basketball team and I haven't seen the baseball team yet but I'm sure they have a lot. Modified starts later than HS sports so their first game isn't until next week. The cost is really a drop in the over all budget bucket. They pay the coaches next to nothing, baseball and basketball equipment isn't much for the school and they have the football equipment (not sure how often they update it). The biggest issue I have seen with Modified and even the Freshman baseball team was not many schools have those programs any more because of budget issues - so we had to travel all over to find games.
Why do you not charge admission? That would solve about 90% of your budget issues. When I took over as AD we were about $40K in the hole. After four years we are about $9K to the good. You just have to be smart with how and what you spend money on. I think a lot of this is political posturing to get something else but I've been wrong before.........quite a bit actually.
North Dakota also cuts their college program
I'm not sure why they don't charge admission for football but like someone else mentioned it's not a big draw like it is in other states so they may be afraid they'd have people stay home instead of paying. We're not talking huge crowds here. And with the deficit we have here sports is just a tiny piece of the pie. I think football gate receipts would be a blip.
My guess is that it will be resolved with some compromise that will involve some form of "pay to play." These costs look small compared to AAU/Travel team fees.