Though there are so many parents who have children who participate in middle and high school sports, there weren’t very many in attendance at the meeting last week at the Spotsylvania County School Board building. The meeting was informative and the parents in attendance were entertaining and interesting!
There was a panel made up of seven or eight of the county’s middle and high school principals and athletic directors. There were lots of questions from parents. Most of the questions concerned (1) the amount of payment and due date, (2) paying to pay versus the athlete’s participation, and (3) county-wide or specific school fundraising to subsidize the athlete’s payment.
What we found out at the meeting or what the panel ended up recommending afterwards is:
Payment : Originally suggested at $125 per middle school student and $75 per higher school athlete. The panel amended that to be $100 per athlete for middle school or high school.
Pay/Participation: Each athlete will be required to pay but there is NO guarantee that they will play. I personally have an issue with that because as a P&R and YMCA volunteer coach and a follower of local school sports, I have seen many coaches run the score up in football or basketball and have plenty of players on the bench that don’t get an opportunity to play one second of the game. As a parent, I will have some heartburn if that happens this year.
Fundraising: The panel gave PTAs and interested parents the right to look into fundraising county-wide or per school. However that money will supplement the school’s sports programs directly versus the individual athlete’s required $100 fee to play.
I wish more parents had been there but those of us who were in attendance voiced the opinion of many parents in Spotsylvania County. The MOST IMPORTANT thing is SPORTS is important in middle schools and high schools!!!
Your IP Address is:
38.107.191.111
