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Date: 9/8/2020
SOUTHWICK – At its Sept. 2 meeting, the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School Committee voted to postpone fall sports to the second fall season between the winter and spring seasons.
During public comment, the School Committee received a long list of pleas from students asking the committee to allow for fall sports.
“Sports are the only thing that some kids have. It is an escape from their world to get their frustration out in a positive way. Sports are the only reason why I did not drop out of school, they helped me when I was depressed, not everyone was there for me, but sports were 100 percent of the time. If you cancel sports, you are making a huge mistake and affecting people’s lives more than you know,” one student said.
To start the fall sports discussion, Superintendent Jennifer Willard explained that she knew where parents and athletes with concerns over postponing fall sports were coming from.
“Sports are a huge part of my life, sports are a huge part of my children’s identities. I do know the importance of the team, the collaboration, and the time management. When I looked at fall athletics, I knew that it was going to be a difficult decision,” she said.
She added that her biggest priority in reopening schools was safety.
“What I have to ensure as the superintendent of schools is the safety of all of our staff and the students who are choosing not to participate in sports. I have to think about making sure any decision I make is in the interests of the entire district,” she said.
Willard said one of the biggest hurdles in approving fall sports was equitable transportation for students in Tolland and Granville.
“The transportation issue is not about getting kids to the games. The equity issue I am talking about when it comes to transportation is that we have students in our district that live in Tolland, Granville and Springfield. Not all of our students would have access to being at our school for practices and our games. I can’t provide transportation for these communities,” Willard said.
After explaining her reasoning behind the decision, Willard recommended that the fall sports season be delayed to the MIAA-proposed second “fall season” between the winter and spring seasons.
“My recommendation is coming from a place where my priority is the safety of all of my staff and all of my students. I feel it would be irresponsible of me to make a recommendation to move forward with fall sports at this time without first reopening the school in a phased-in basis and prioritizing education,” Willard said.
After the presentation, School Committee Vice Chair Pamela Petschke said she was in favor of Willard’s conservative approach.
“We have to keep in mind what our role is, I have to say I am proud to take a conservative stance. We are a school district; our number one job is educating our kids and that is going to be a challenge no matter what. I don’t want to do anything to make that harder than it already is,” she said.
School Committee member Jonathan Schantz, who voted against the postponement, said that allowing sports would be a good way to make sure the children are still following the COVID guidelines.
“These kids are going to be in rec. leagues and they’re playing other places. A lot of these kids are old enough to drive, they’ve got jobs, they’re going all over the place anyways. I almost feel like you could make a case that the kids may be safer playing the sport because we know they’re and following protocol. These kids are not going to go home and hide in their bedrooms until the next day,” he said.
Ultimately, the committee voted to postpone the fall sports season by a 5 to 2 margin.