The Nugget Newspaper - News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

The overall funding crisis for Sisters school programs has hit the middle school sports program hard.

"We are $29,000 in the red for middle school operating costs," Sisters Middle School Principal Mark Stewart told the school board last week. "As I go through this, the bottom line is that we have two options. Option one is we cut middle school sports completely. Option two is that we take a good look at what we have developed (a partnership with Stewart and Sisters Park & Recreation District (SPRD). Business Manager Anne Heath presented a proposal for a joint venture that would potentially resolve the middle school sports budget crisis for the coming school year.

"This proposal describes the scope of a joint venture between Sisters School District and SPRD for the purpose of managing middle school sports in Sisters," Steart explained. "We believe that the organizations share a common purpose and commitment to the engagement of youth in extracurricular activities. Because middle school sports are at risk due to economic challenges, it becomes necessary for both organizations to work closely together to ensure important programs are retained."

As they envision it, this joint venture would remain in effect until a more comprehensive solution can be developed by the fledgling "Sisters Sports Coalition," a local consortium of public and private groups that is attempting to forge a long-term solution for the ever-worsening co-curricular activities funding crisis.

Stewart said, "Our goal is that any of you that come to a middle school sport...you don't know who is running it...it looks the same...acts the same as a middle school sports program and not a club program."

The funding to support this program would include the $14,000 already approved for the middle school sports program as part of the recently approved school budget, $2,500 in anticipated grants, and $4,500 raised in traditional fundraisers. The plan also includes an expenditure of $5,000 for an athletic director at the middle school to coordinate with SPRD Sports Program Manager Ryan Moffat.

Stewart said, "We feel that it is vital to have someone in the (middle school) building be a liaison, otherwise we have an outside entity running our sports and we have no connection. That was part of the failure of the SOAR program (a similar program attempted several years ago). There was no connection between the entity (SOAR) that was running middle school sports and the school."

The pay-to-play fee for middle school sports would be increased from $75 to $100 under this proposal, with maximum per student of $250 and a maximum per family of $500. There was also discussion about a per district maximum to make allowance for families that have student athletes in both middle school and high school, but that issue remains to be resolved.

Both the board and the presenters acknowledged a concern that hard economic times were creating real challenges for many families in Sisters Country. With more than 30 percent of the middle school students on the free/reduced lunch program, it is anticipated that scholarships will become a significant issue. At new board member Andrew Gorayeb's urging, the budget for scholarships was increased.

Heath said that families of scholarship kids need to step up.

"I feel very strongly that families need to step up and take some responsibility, (on a scholarship) their kids are being served," she said. "In terms of volunteer hours, some families are working so hard and some families are not working at all. If you are coming to us and asking us for a scholarship there needs to be somebody from your household ... whether it is the athlete or the parent, coming forward if they can and putting some effort into fundraising. There is a responsibility on the family's part to participate in this effort. It is a community effort."

The board agreed to the joint venture concept in principle, but a formal detailed working agreement still needs to be worked out. If and when an agreement between the board and SPRD is reached, details of the sports program will be shared with parents via a press release, letters home, emails and School Loop.