A lot of middle school students don’t have much to do after school now that junior varsity sports have been cut.
In the past two years, the Oak Harbor School District has made $4.5 million in cuts. Officials have always said the cuts haven’t affected academic programs, but students are starting to feel the cuts in several other areas.
Junior varsity sports at the district’s two middle schools were eliminated starting with the current school year.
“Who in the school board or what committee made this terrible decision,” said Charles Murphy in a letter submitted to the Whidbey News-Times. “I feel it’s bad enough they offer no sixth-grade sports programs, but now seventh- and eighth-grades will be without JV programs.”
Joe Hunt, school district spokesperson, said the district saved $40,000 by eliminating JV sports at the middle schools. The cutback accounted for more than 10 percent of the money the school district puts into athletics. Sports impacted are boys and girls basketball, wrestling and girls volleyball. The middle schools are combining track and cross country teams.
Ray Cone, assistant principal at North Whidbey Middle School, estimate between 100 and 130 boys and about the same number of girls participated in middle school sports last year. Unless they make varsity this year, they won’t have a chance to play sports.
The millions of dollars worth of cuts the school district has made in response to decreasing enrollment and increasing costs include eliminating 76 positions and closing Clover Valley Elementary School.
Even though Hunt said the reductions haven’t affected academic programs yet, the loss of middle school junior varsity sports is one of the first areas that has a direct and immediate impact on students.
Another place students are feeling the pain of recent cutbacks is in transportation. Officials combined bus routes in another cost-saving move. While the change saved money, many students have to take longer bus rides to and from school.
As for bringing back junior varsity sports in the event the district’s budget improves, Hunt said that is unlikely because the school district could be making more reductions next year. It’s best to “leave things as they are for this year so we won’t have to cut as much next year.”
Murphy suggested that if the school district can’t find money in the budget to restore middle school JV sports, maybe the parents can band together and donate the money needed for the coaches and transportation for the programs.
