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Poland school board moves to make swim team a club sport
POLAND
The Board of Education approved a motion to return the swim team to a club sport — saving the district an estimated $16,000 annually.
The board also approved a motion to impose no activity fees for the 2011-12 school year with the option to revisit the fee issue at a later date. The votes on both motions were unanimous.
“We are aware we have financial difficulties,” said board member David Bennet. “Every dollar and expense is important, but I don’t know if raising fees will improve the financial condition of the school system in the long run.”
Although the board has looked at several options for activity fees in the past, the fees for consideration Thursday night were $75 per high-school sport and $50 per middle-school sport.
Board member Robert Shovlin echoed the rest of the board, saying, “At this time, I don’t think it’s wise” to approve a fee.
Shovlin said if the board chooses to assess an activity fee in the future, he would like it to be applied to any student who travels to any extracurriculars.
Board president Elinor Zedaker said that the swim team already has switched to using the YMCA for practice, instead of paying to rent the pool at Youngstown State University, and organized a carpool for swim meets. As a club sport, swimmers still will be able to complete in the Ohio High School Athletic Association tournaments.
The board will continue to pay for a swim coach at a cost of about $3,700 annually.
“A small part of me still thinks it’s a little unfair to pick one sport,” said board member Richard Weaver.
Superintendent Robert Zorn said in the last week he received several phone calls from parents concerned about a participation fee with football conditioning beginning July 10 and also several calls about high-school busing, which the board cut earlier this year.
Zorn said the board might want to consider getting information to parents about independent transit contractors. He said he has contacted Transit Service Inc. out of Struthers, which also provides transportation for the district’s special-needs students, for information. Zorn and the board said they would like to have information from transit companies that could be distributed to parents during orientation.
The district would not pay for the busing, Zorn said.