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Date: 6/29/2023
WILBRAHAM — The Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School Committee met on June 15 to discuss topics regarding sports in the district.
Superintendent John Provost proposed an athletic fee increase for fiscal year 2024. It has been more than seven years since the fees were last raised. School Committee member Bill Bontempi said there is a $34,000 deficit in the athletic revolving account and the increase could help close that gap. School Committee member Maura Ryan pointed out that the $20,122 that the increased fees would bring in would not be enough to cover the shortfall.
Ryan wondered about the Booster Club, asking, “Where do their funds go?”
Bontempi explained that fundraising used to be done by the individual teams and players. The Booster Club was created to bring all school sports under a single fundraising umbrella, with a spirit group for each sport. Spirit groups raise money, and the Booster Club spreads the funding out as needed and based on the number of participants in each sport. The funding is generally spent on training equipment through the athletic revolving account, but the account was “decimated” during the pandemic when fundraising came to a standstill.
Fall sports signups are open until June 30, but the fee collection is on hold until the School Committee considers the increases. The proposed athletic fee schedule would employ a blanket 10% increase. The proposed fees would generally range from $198 to $231, however, the three most expensive sports — football, skiing and ice hockey — would cost $275, $330 and $495, respectively.
The fees are used to pay for costs, such as transporting players to games and tournaments and paying for officials. Minnechaug Regional High School Principal Stephen Hale said the variations in fees are also a reflection of the different equipment costs. A football player uses more equipment owned by the district than a cross-country runner. Ryan said a breakdown of costs covered by the fees should be supplied to parents, so they know how their money is being used.
School Committee member Sherrill Caruana asked if there were reduced fees for low-income students. Provost told her that there were, and that the policy would have to be more widely advertised because, “so few families know about it.”
School Committee member Patrick Kiernan said that even with the increases, the district’s fees were still “the best deal in sports.” Nonetheless, he and Caruana asked to table the conversation. Athletic, parking and activities fees will be discussed at the next meeting.
MIAA chemical policy
Continuing on the topic of sports, Kiernan had asked to discuss the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association’s Chemical Health Rule, which prohibits students from using, buying, selling or giving away alcohol, tobacco products including vape pens, marijuana, steroids, drug paraphernalia or “any controlled substance.” The consequence of violating this policy is the ineligibility of that student to play for approximately 25% of that season’s schedule. Subsequent violations raise the consequence to 60% for the season.
Kiernan said that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education recently changed its discipline guidelines to promote restorative justice and rehabilitation. The MIAA’s policy is punitive in nature, he said, adding, “We could disadvantage our students’ future opportunities.” Hale argued the loss of games would be a consequence of a student’s choices.
Kiernan suggested using a review and rehabilitation policy instead.
Bontempi said the “fear” is that the MIAA will “retaliate” against a district for “subverting” its policies. He suggested writing a letter to the MIAA asking them to address the issue.
Provost said if there is a pattern of inequitable implementation, the district may have a stronger case to change this policy. The athletic director said that all but one of the 13 student violations this year involved white students.
“The MIAA policies are not a la carte,” Hale said, adding that they must all be followed. “We put every athlete and every team in danger” by not following MIAA policies. Hale said advocating for change must be done at their level and not by one district acting unilaterally.
School Choice
The School Committee voted 4-3 to authorize use of $40,000 from the School Choice account to fund the cost of a school bus for one year, despite opposition from Ryan, Kiernan and School Committee Chair Michal Boudreau.
The subsidy is needed to avoid changing the transportation schedule from two tiers to three and, consequently, having to adjust school start and end times. That plan, originally pursued as a method of funding a budget gap, proved unpopular with the community. The district then negotiated with the bus supplier, Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative, to condense bus routes and eliminate four of the five buses and drivers it needed to close the gap, leaving one bus to fund.
The topic was tabled at the June 1 committee meeting when Kiernan asked the administration to search for another funding source.
Kiernan suggested $20,000 from proposed athletic fee increases could be used instead of taking the full amount from the School Choice account. Bontempi pointed out some downfalls to that plan. First, the fees are needed for the athletic revolving account to keep the money from being taken from the general fund. Second, the fees are raised throughout the three seasons of sports and are not available at the beginning of the fiscal year.