FCPS budget issues - why don't they just dump sports?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm fine with the school system dumping sports as long as they dump music, chorus and drama as well.

Those are classes- akin to PE. Sports are after school exclusively.

Students still have to take classes, so it wouldn't save money as teachers still need to be paid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm fine with the school system dumping sports as long as they dump music, chorus and drama as well.

Those are classes- akin to PE. Sports are after school exclusively.

Students still have to take classes, so it wouldn't save money as teachers still need to be paid.

I hear what you're saying but there still are a lot of resources that go in to those programs. My point is that some members of society have given a lot of value to things like music, chorus and drama, but not as much to sports.

Yet there are significant benefits to children who participate in sports. If you doubt this, then you should speak with teachers at Title I schools, whose students usually are not participating in after-school rec league sporting activities because their parents cannot afford it or cannot get them to practices/games/etc. Those teachers will tell you that there are a lot of ancillary benefits to sporting activities that children begin to apply in high school because of their participation on teams.

So I advocate that not only should we keep the high school programs we have but we should increase the programs to more after-school leagues for elementary and middle school children. Research shows that children who participate in sports do better in school. Increasing our spending in this area, by expansion to lower grades, could/would actually save the school system money.

[Anonymous]

Lets ask some the students what they think of eliminating sports....

[Anonymous]

DCUM- I always wondered what the parents of the losers who couldn't make the team felt about everything, and now we know.

[Anonymous]

My kids in sports (but it's the club team we pay $$$$ that really does the work/ coaching) to allow them to make the HS team. However, I do get why sports is important to schools: School pride, sense of connection, etc. I don't think they should lose that.

School sports in the high socioeconomic areas likely don't matter because we all pay to be in the elite clubs anyway. I think it is important for the students who only get sports, music, drama at the school level. Sometimes that may be the only reason they show up.

I don't know what the answers are but something has to change. Class size wAy to big and teachers have too much work and too many students to really be effective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids in sports (but it's the club team we pay $$$$ that really does the work/ coaching) to allow them to make the HS team. However, I do get why sports is important to schools: School pride, sense of connection, etc. I don't think they should lose that.

School sports in the high socioeconomic areas likely don't matter because we all pay to be in the elite clubs anyway. I think it is important for the students who only get sports, music, drama at the school level. Sometimes that may be the only reason they show up.

I don't know what the answers are but something has to change. Class size wAy to big and teachers have too much work and too many students to really be effective.

And yet the most likely cuts will be to compensation, benefits and class size ratio while other cuts will be taken off the table.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm fine with the school system dumping sports as long as they dump music, chorus and drama as well.

I think there is enough culture in those to warrant being part of the academic core purpose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids in sports (but it's the club team we pay $$$$ that really does the work/ coaching) to allow them to make the HS team. However, I do get why sports is important to schools: School pride, sense of connection, etc. I don't think they should lose that.

School sports in the high socioeconomic areas likely don't matter because we all pay to be in the elite clubs anyway. I think it is important for the students who only get sports, music, drama at the school level. Sometimes that may be the only reason they show up.

I don't know what the answers are but something has to change. Class size wAy to big and teachers have too much work and too many students to really be effective.

what if "school pride" came from academic achievement?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In our district, kids on academic teams have to pay fees but kids on sports teams don't. Messed up.

+1
Scholastic teams are a whole lot more valuable to a school's reputation. Sadly, the focus seems to swing in the other direction (sports).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What budget crisis? The budget goes up every single year.

This. I've stopped taking their cries of woe seriously. It's a complete 'boy who cried wolf' situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should dump aap and all oob busing.

Not a very big bang for the buck. The students in AAP still need teachers- so no decrease in expenses there. They still need to be bussed- so local ES and MS would have additional buses- it might make a small difference, but it would be minimal.

The school board just looked at this and the cost differential for bussing was zero.

This is utterly false. There is no way additional buses cost "zero." In our community alone, there are many extra buses going miles out of their way to bring kids to the AAP center - which is miles past the base school. Yes, they get picked up in their own neighborhoods by center-specific buses.

If you have a link stating otherwise, feel free to provide.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The school board just looked at this and the cost differential for bussing was zero.

If that is true, it appears that they have absolutely no common sense. There is not any way that could be the cost differential.

Please post the source information.

I believe it was in a recent budget worksession.

Links? This is false information.

[Anonymous]

Agreed, cancel sports. Cancel everyday practice and weekend games, kids are so over scheduled and sports are part of the problem. Half these parents are trying to earn scholarships or admission preference via sports. Why should we all chip in on sports that few benefit from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should dump aap and all oob busing.

Didn't take long for one of DCUM's usual AAP-haters to jump in.

AAP is one thing that helps make FCPS attractive to many families. Someone argued above that losing sports would make the area less attractive but in the end, education is supposedly why FCPS exists, and academic programs should take precedence over sports. Every time.

Go on, PP, rant about how AAP and AP and IB and everything that challenges kids (sometimes by letting them go to a school other than their local one) should be axed. So we can keep sports, right?

Not the PP, and I would be fine with cutting sports or charging fees to play. However, if the day ever comes when ALL kids are able to choose a school other than their local one, and not just AAP kids, then I will have no problem with AAP. Until then, it's a program that promotes inequity and should not be supported by a PUBLIC school system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What budget crisis? The budget goes up every single year.

This. I've stopped taking their cries of woe seriously. It's a complete 'boy who cried wolf' situation.

The school board and FCPS has a problem with math. MORE money every single year is hardly a budget crisis.