OSAA nixes sports program alternative

For the past year, a group of parents, coaches, local businessmen, school officials and Sisters Park & Recreation District (SPRD) representatives have been meeting to forge a new direction for youth sports funding and coordination in Sisters.

A key component of that effort included outsourcing Sisters High School sports programs to a community "sports authority." However, the Oregon Schools Activities Association (OSAA) has said no to the sports authority concept.

While the sports authority concept appears to fit the mission of the OSAA, it does not fit their charter. OSAA pointed out that by their charter they are only allowed to deal directly with member schools (public and private). They cannot speak directly to, or more importantly govern, a separate non-member third-party entity such as a sports authority.

The struggling economy has led to severe budget cuts for sports programs at the public school level, and decreased fundraising success in the community at the "club sports" level. One of the goals of the citizens' committee was to find alternative funding sources and fundraising methods for both school and club sports. The committee wanted to develop a fundraising model that was more focused, that provided more equitable distribution of the funds collected between all sports, and that placed less of a burden on the coaches and parents of the participants.

Board member Cheryl Stewart said, "There was a lot of good, hard work done by this committee. I don't want to lose all the parity and good ideas that have come from the committee."

While the Sisters Middle School arrangement with SPRD for sports coverage remains unaffected, the funding for high school sports remains "an emergency," according to a consensus of the school board.