This is scary

Hate to say it but up in here in the Frederick County and Winchester area, it would not surprise me to see this happen with the middle school sports and maybe some of the non-revenue producing sports.

Heck even our FCPS administrators are allowing local dollars to leave our local economy with this joint adventure this year, which just baffles me.

WHY are the FCPS Admin's allowing this to happen???

Response to GameDay Reps and Supporters

This "cut" threat - and I'll admit "threat" is a strong word, but it's accurate here - is being used to create support for more funding.
I do know that my local system (FCPS)is beginning to float the "cut athletics" trial balloon - but is not looking to cut the millions of $ wasted anually (and yes, I'm one of those who actually have gone to the budget meetings & am on several distribution lists).
When times are tough, it's always "we're going to cut police, firefighters, & teachers".
Shame on them.

Story I heard is that FCPS isn't planning to cut athletics, but they ARE looking to put in a $100 per athlete per season/sport athletic fee. It'll be interesting to see what happens if some kid or family can't pay that amount due to financial hardship...

I would imagine booster scholarships would help defer these costs for families with financial hardships.

Hey "Jess1" and "gr8day4bsball" are you guys talking about Fairfax County Public Schools?

If so, you may want to use FXCPS vs. FCPS which is referenced for Frederick County Public School out here in Winchester.

Might save confusion?

I anticipate the cutting of freshman sports and a $100 sports fee.

How times have changed...............

Coach,
FCPS is bigger, therefore we'll stomp on other users of the acronym...

:-)

Yes, I'm referring to FFaX. FWIW, they're floating both fees & cutting sports.

(you mean there's more to the Commonwealth than NoVa?)

From what I understand, this is a FFaX budget proposal.

Taxpayers have an opportunity to voice their opinion and influence the final budget proposal.

quote:

This "cut" threat - and I'll admit "threat" is a strong word, but it's accurate here - is being used to create support for more funding.

Spot on. Especially if by "more funding" you mean "tax increases."

In Chesterfield, they ran a survey asking school personnel what should be cut. The trick was, all of the cuts in the survey would, if totaled, not be enough to close the gap suggested by Kaine's proposed budget. I'm sure the hope was that we would stampede the General Assembly for more money -- more taxes if necessary -- and maybe also give them a pass if they raised taxes locally.

What ended up happening was, they started a firestorm when different groups of personnel all demanded that someone else's job be cut, not theirs. Not exactly the morale boosting unity job the administration was going for.

My prediction: The Assembly will cut K-12, but not nearly as much as is currently threatened. Localities will in the end find the gap smaller, and find ways to make ends meet without the sky falling.

Sports will likely see cuts, as will a lot of folks, but the death penalty will not be applied.

I do think your local baseball program would be well advised to gear up for fund raising, now more than ever, because expenses will grow and funding likely will shrink at least some.

I think Chesterfield residents are being set up for a tax increase- citizens will come begging to have their taxes raised to support the school system.

quote:

Originally posted by stilllearning:
I think Chesterfield residents are being set up for a tax increase- citizens will come begging to have their taxes raised to support the school system.

Bingo.

It is a classic case of them setting up a false dilemma. It happens all the time.

"We either kill sports or raise taxes to fund them"

In reality, there is much more they can do that doesn't do either one. As mentioned before, get involved with your booster program, at the very least. I suspect we end up seeing some sort of "player fee" as part of the solution. Problem is, that potentially opens a whole new can of worms concerning player time when you move closer to a "pay to play" scenario.

I am sure coaches are really looking forward to that possibility. /sarcasm off