Athletic directors deliver revised plan: Ann Arbor should increase 'pay to play'
Huron Athletic Director Dottie Davis, right, listens as Skyline Athletic Coordinator John Young talks Wednesday about the proposed athletic funding cuts during the planning committee meeting for Ann Arbor Public Schools.
Angela J. Cesere | AnnArbor.com
Freshman football and volleyball will be spared from cuts in Ann Arbor's high schools, according to a revised plan submitted by athletic directors, though "pay to play" will increase to maintain freshman boys basketball and lacrosse as a full varsity sport.
Those moves were outlined Wednesday afternoon as athletic directors from Huron, Pioneer and Skyline made new recommendations to help close a $475,000 budget gap for the coming year. The directors also clarified what it means to be a ‘club sport’ as opposed to a fully funded varsity sport.
The recommendations, which followed a round of suggestions previously made by the directors, included some changes to increase revenue and further details supporting the cuts.
By increasing the “pay-to-participate” cost to students and their families for varsity sports, the directors hope to raise revenue by $150,000 for freshman basketball and lacrosse.
In a presentation made by Robert Allen, deputy superintendent of operations of Ann Arbor Public Schools, he acknowledged that these increases are not easy, but he said that options are limited.
“At some point, there’s nothing left to cut and I think we’re almost there,” he said. “Every cut we make at this point is going to have a significant effect on someone.”
Boys’ and girls’ bowling, cheer, dance and fall crew were affected: Their new status as club sports will mean changes for parents, but not for the athletes.
“Nothing will change for the students,” Dottie Davis, athletics director for Huron High School, said. “You’re still going to get a varsity letter, you can still participate on the all-district and all-conference teams, you will still practice in the same place. We are all a family and we take care of each other. We share and we communicate.”
Currently, student athletes pay $150 for the first sport, $75 for the second sport, and no fee for any sport after that. The committee discussed raising that to either a $250 flat rate per athlete per year or raising each tier by $50. Both measures would raise revenue by a projected $150,000.
Last year was the first year of the current pay-to-participate plan, and student participation in athletics dropped from the previous year. Members of the school board expressed reservations that an increase could “price out” some students from participating in athletics.
"There are kids who can pay no problem, and there are kids who are going to get scholarships and waivers and I’m not worried about them,” Irene Patalan, a school board member, said. “It’s the group in the middle that’s going to swing it, and that’s the group we’re concerned about.”
The athletic directors pointed out that compared to other schools in the district, AAPS schools are still well below the average in pay-to-play cost. Novi charges students $350 per season to participate in varsity athletics, for example.
The new ‘club’ sports will not be funded by the district, and will continue through fundraising and increased fees. The freshman sports being cut, boys’ and girls’ soccer and girl’s basketball, will also be able to exist as club sports if the parents are able to raise the necessary funds for coaches and transportation.
Christine Stead, the chair of the planning committee, raised concern that the cuts were disproportional to women’s athletics and the district could be out of compliance with Title IX. David Comsa, the district’s legal adviser, explained that because proportional opportunities exist for female athletes based on interest and enrollment, the district would still be in “complete Title IX compliance.”
Rich Griffith, head crew coach at Pioneer High School, said that while he expected the cuts, the process bothered him.
“There was not a lot of transparency from the athletics directors,” he said. “We don’t even know how the money is split up, so we don’t really know exactly what to think.”
There appeared to be some disconnect between coaches and athletics directors on this point. Davis and Skyline athletics coordinator John Young both said during the meeting that coaches had been consulted at every step of the road.
One of the most contentious cuts was the freshman soccer program at all three schools. The problem rested as much on other schools as it did on Ann Arbor budget constraints. In a statement read aloud at the meeting, Lumumba Shabazz, Pioneer’s head soccer coach, said that he faced difficulty finding teams for his freshman squads to play against.
Davis said that all three soccer coaches in the district agreed that eliminating freshman soccer would increase competitiveness within their programs and allow the freshmen to compete at a higher level right away. The same held true for girls’ basketball.
“Tecumseh and Chelsea dropped their freshman girls team last year,” Young said. “My girls were having to play Huron and Pioneer three or four times a season just to get a full schedule.”
The changes will be discussed further at a study session in tonight’s full school board meeting.
Ben Freed is a summer intern at AnnArbor.com. You can reach him by email at benfreed@annarbor.com or by phone at (734)-623-4674. Follow him on Twitter @BFreedInA2.
Comments
Tex Treeder
Sun, Oct 30, 2011 : 10:19 p.m.
How much does an Athletic Director in Ann Arbor make? Whatever it is, it's too much. This job should be cut.
dzucker
Sun, Jul 17, 2011 : 3:44 a.m.
after thinking this thing through again, i think the AD's had an impossible job. If the budget is that bad, they really should cut all freshman sports. those kids can compete for spots on the JV and Varsity.
Jack Atkinson
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 3:25 p.m.
Meanwhile, in the spring, there is a great alternative: youth rugby! Yes, it's "pay to play," but the costs are comparatively low, and you actually get to play (as opposed to many school-based sports). Ann Arbor has had a boys team (Washtenaw RFC) for the past 15 years and, I believe, there is now a local girls team. Trust me (having coached the club for 10 years), these kids (and their parents) take it very seriously, and many go on to play at the university level. It's a great sport (where brains, brawn, and fitness merge) and very safe.
apples
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 2:32 p.m.
I would hope that everyone would have a voice, not just the booster group.
Ron Granger
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 1:24 p.m.
So they talked about what athletes pay... But the disclosure of how much taxpayers pay is ABSENT. Because it's being kept secret from the taxpayers. That absence is unexcused.
tim
Fri, Jul 15, 2011 : 1:49 a.m.
So what-- there is a myriad of classes and activities that go on in our educational system that tax payers pay for without showing discloser.
Key
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 9:58 a.m.
I attended this meeting. At no time was there mention made of keeping lacrosse. The plan for lacrosse was described as keeping it funded by the school for this year and making it club next year. The savings from no longer funding lacrosse were described as about $97,000.00. The problem with this statement is that as a club the lacrosse players would not being paying the pay-to-participate fees. Thus the savings will actually be somewhere around $25,000.00 depending on the amount of the fees for the coming years. So, success in saving about 25k, but not the savings that is advertised.
say it plain
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 10:23 p.m.
Exactly, @MsWebster! I'd love to see the numbers for Skyline, because one of the BIG reasons to have built this grand new building with the stunning fields was to provide a great new set of opportunities for kids to use these. In one sense, I'm feeling like it might be true that more kids are playing there, in part because it has felt less 'competitive' in some ways due to the newness of the school. But this little window onto the thinking of the ADs in town makes it seem like really, ultimately, "competitiveness" is the goal, *not* keeping more kids in sports, having more kids play. Totally a shame, especially since the school was sold on the premise that we could really benefit as a district from *another* comprehensive high school, instead of smaller schools on the model of CHS, which is so sought-after in this community. Not that sports is the only reason to have a large comprehensive school, but surely it was one of the selling points for Skyline's being built, and now we can be left wondering about AAPS commitment to including as many as possible.
kms
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 1:41 p.m.
Does that mean that each sport costs $97,000? Probably there is some variation due to the cost of equipment for some sports. It sure would be nice to see data. I can guarantee that if the pay-to-play fee is increased to $250, there will be a significant drop off of players, especially those who've never played a sport and thought they might try something. Parents will sure complain if they pay a hefty fee and their kid turns out to be a benchwarmer. On team sports, there's usually just a handful of starters who see regular play. My kids play 5 sports between them and it will be hard to make them cut down since they are upperclassmen but if they were incoming freshman I would make them choose just one sport each.
A2parent
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 1:04 p.m.
anything else from the meeting you attended that can be shared would be appreciated since it seems as AAPS is not willing to share the details...
MsWebster
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 12:26 p.m.
@Key, If you take $250 as a ballpark pay to play fee for a single sport the figures you quote assume 288 students are playing Lacrosse and only Lacrosse. (250 * 288 = 72000, the difference between 97,000 and 25000). Are there 288 students that only play Lacrosse? It's complicated trying to untie the knots and find out savings or cost for a single sport when there is a tiered pay to play system in place. At what point is 25,000 in savings or 10,000 or any savings in sports not enough savings? As an aside, wasn't Skyline built with the intention of allowing more students to play sports? I would be curious to see the athletic budget for Skyline over the past 3 years and the number of students participating in sports. Does anyone know where that information is posted?
newsboy
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 5:03 a.m.
Athletic directors? When I was in school some years ago, we only had gym teachers. All though they where lousy at teaching math and science, they where great at handling all things phys-ed and driver-ed. How did this small and insignificant phys-ed program grow to be so monolithic in cost to the schools and perceived value in education. I still love to play dodge-ball, and the cool thing is; you still don't need a coach to play it!
say it plain
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 5:59 a.m.
Ah, yes, because now HS varsity sports programs are stepping-stones to *college* varsity sports programs, and you know what celebrities ADs are there ;-) So, gotta get little Johnnie and Jillie in the loop, all in, ready to compete. Get rid of freshman sports, never the athletic directors, because actually, forcing kids to make tighter cuts in 9th grade will give them that 'edge' they'll so appreciate throughout their lives. This is at least the little story they'll tell themselves to justify their moves, even though it benefits an incredibly small number of kids to the detriment of so very many others, including those who would like to play more sports, but less competitively. A coach might help kids with their fitness, or even with strategies for having fun/doing well on the soccer field, basketball court, etc. But with all the coaches focused on the already-constantly-competing best-skilled kids who make the teams still receiving funding, we are ALL paying to (try and) develop little wanna-be-UM running backs and power forwards or whatever. And so long as the ADs don't even have to shine the light of day on their operations, and the school board plays these little politics games about the process, we can bet that the people to whom high-competition varsity sports is deeply important will win the day, rah rah!
weberg
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 4:25 a.m.
Do we really need to have 3 athletic directors? If we started from scratch and organized an Ann Arbor athletics with the budget at hand, would we keep 3 AD positions? If not, then why is this not being reconsidered? What are their salaries? How close would we close the gap if the positions were consolidated to one athletic director to manage the sports at the 3 high schools? I'm sure the coaches would be willing to support a single AD organization, and would pick up more of the AD-type responsibilities (coordinating schedules, logistics, budget, etc) if it meant preserving freshman sports and preserving a greater chunk of the budget to be allocated directly to uniforms, equipment, and other items that directly impact the student athletes. Three AD positions to me sounds like another example of public sector not adjusting to the the strategic reorganization that the private sector underwent as the economy as soured.... time to catch up with the times and become more efficient!
kms
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 3:01 p.m.
All the high school coaches I know are pretty devoted..they have to love what they do because they certainly aren't paid much. They would probably be willing to do even more in these lean times. I could imagine a scenario where there would be one AD with assistants at each of the schools, perhaps even part time assistants or recent sports management college grads, who could be paid an entry level salary. I do think there needs to be someone physically at each school but it doesn't have to be a full-fledged, full-time salaried AD.
snapshot
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 3:54 a.m.
I'm shocked that this "kids sports story" gets more attention than cutting thousand of children and adults off from food supplements. Sports is a game and its cost contributes nothing to the general welfare of society. There should be no taxpayer funded sports entertainment while we are literally taking food out of childrens mouths.
Craig Lounsbury
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 5:25 p.m.
can you clarify?
Stephen Landes
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 3:21 a.m.
I do not understand why freshman football is exempt from being cut. I like football as much as anyone, but if we're going to cut freshman sports then lets cut ALL freshman sports.
Craig Lounsbury
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 5:23 p.m.
its a straw man argument. If safety was really the issue standing on a scale would be all that matters regardless of age. The 180 lb freshman takes the 155 lb seniors spot.
PhillyCheeseSteak
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 2:17 p.m.
There was an explanation in an earlier article on the subject that this is a safety issue in a contact sport. Freshman boys, being smaller, could be more likely to get injured if they played against older, bigger, stronger boys.
dzucker
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 2:59 a.m.
wow. raise pay to play fees so 9th grade boys basketball and lacrosse can be funded. something stinks here.
say it plain
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 2:26 a.m.
"Tecumseh and Chelsea dropped their freshman girls team last year," Young said. "My girls were having to play Huron and Pioneer three or four times a season just to get a full schedule." So, what would be wrong with that? Wouldn't that be cheaper? Or do only freshmen who are good enough for the varsity team get to play now? It's so tiring to spend money on piling up W-L records for AAPS versus other districts. But I guess it's the 'threat' from the sports-families that they'd move to other communities' schools that keeps us playing this 3 AD district "now we're even *more* competitive" game which AAPS values over other concerns. Maybe a school could say, hey, we'll spend the money we would have on an AD, coaches, and a full plate of varsity sports on other school activities, you know, for the families who'd prefer that?! I mean, there *is* Community High, but if you get lucky and get into that school which is allegedly predicated on the rejection of such things as varsity sports focus, you can *still* play at the comprehensive high schools, d'oh! And I guess I've got to hope that someone makes a title IX challenge, because apparently otherwise we'll never get to see the actual numbers on *anything* from the seemingly untouchable athletic budget! I sure hope all our uber-successful-from-all-their-learning-how-to-compete-on-the-field, and very fit AAPS graduates stay on in the state so they can help us run it, and its schools, better!
treetowncartel
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 2:18 a.m.
Why does each school need an athletic director?
sweetdaddy1963
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 2:10 a.m.
Let me make this simple people when aaps had a Jr high 7-9 they had sports for 9th grade only now they have middle schools 6-8th you still following me! Good so in reaility there should be no middle school sports! Saving people let us parents worry about clubs sports and travel teams at that level. Now what will happen with some sports at high schools with no freshman program (baseball,basketball) is not as many kids will get the opportunity to play period, baseball and basketball have limited rosters so if there are a couple of talented freshmen then that soph,Jr, and in some cases Sr will get displaced because most coaches will take that freshman so what I'm saying is it will be a true boys club only the elite will get a chance to play no more kids will get a chance to devolope into a better player. Either you can play or you can't who cares if you hustle now no more role players in aaps. I hope you know what line you are about to cross. If my kid try's out for a team and does not make it fine I can live with that ,so pay to play should have a try out fee first and if you make a team then you pay to play, not pay to try out (the whole fee) I can use that money for something else like school supplies.
A2anon
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 2:06 a.m.
Why is increased competitiveness for the freshman soccer players a good thing? Don't we want to give more kids a chance to up their game, by having Freshman teams, before going to JV and Varsity? Doesn't this just mean that only the kids already excelling will get to play for their schools?
say it plain
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 2:10 a.m.
Yep, that's what varsity sports has always been about really...it's not about giving more kids the chance to 'up' their game, but making sure you field the best possible team for your school's record-keeping, woohoo!
Charlie Brown's Ghost
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 2:04 a.m.
Hello? What about baseball?
Oregon39_Michigan7
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 1:18 a.m.
Watch out Mr./Mrs. Band director and Art Teacher!
schoolsmuse
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 1:12 a.m.
David Comsa, can you please prove--in any way--that "proportional opportunities exist for female athletes based on interest and enrollment?" Ben, were there any changes made to the transportation plans?
Brian Hall
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 3:12 p.m.
I don't know how proportional opportunities can be proven to exist, but AAPS can remain title IX compliant because the Michigan Athletic Association policy is to let girls play on boy's teams but does not let boys play on girl's teams. The argument is that if both boys and girls can participate on a boy's team then opportunity exists for both. Even though it is unlikely girls will make up 50% of the boys team, title IX is about equal opportunity not equal outcome. This ruling has been upheld in several states with similar policies. In an extreme case, rural schools in Nebraska were found to be compliant when they offered only boy's teams since state policy allowed girls to participate on them but not vice versa. In states like Massachusetts where boys are allowed to play on girl's teams when a school does not offer a boy's team, this arguement was found invalid and Title IX compliance is based on opportunities in proportion to enrollment.
Ben Freed
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 12:57 a.m.
@local: To clarify, participants in club sports would not pay the "pay to participate" fee to the school. They would, however, be responsible for finding ways (through payments and fundraising) to cover the costs for their club sport. @A2parent: for more clarification on the difference between club sports and varsity sports please see this article: <a href="http://bit.ly/iMlZ7F" rel='nofollow'>http://bit.ly/iMlZ7F</a>. The grey sidebar on the right outlines the difference between club and varsity sports. Thanks for commenting! Ben
say it plain
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 2:12 a.m.
Ben, can you remind us why we don't have access to the breakdowns of the sports budget numbers?
A2parent
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 1:49 a.m.
Ben - was there any further discussion/clarification on the process? I have reviewed the previous article. Your article states that the AD's clarified the difference between club and a fully funded varsity sport-- what did they clarify? Are there varsity sports that are not fully funded, partially funded or unfunded?
local
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 12:50 a.m.
Club sports would support themselves, but I would hope they would be excused from the pay to play fee. These are tough decisions, ones the district didn't want to make. I think most people would deal with this versus some of the alternatives. I heard someone comment that each school wouldn't have athletics, that it would be a Unified sports. This means less participants, but less funding as well. We could cut AD's, but it will only save so much. So this is the situation at this point, let's give it a try and go with it.
A2parent
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 1:44 a.m.
In the past club sports have been excused from the pay to play fee. With so many sports converting to club status, will the increase in fees truly account for a revenue increase of $150,000? SHOW US THE NUMBERS!
Terry Star21
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 : 12:49 a.m.
"Nothing will change for the students," Dottie Davis, athletics director for Huron High School, said. "You're still going to get a varsity letter, you can still participate on the all-district and all-conference teams, you will still practice in the same place. We are all a family and we take care of each other. We share and we communicate." Thank you A2 schools for thinking about the students and sports activities. I hate to say 'I told you so' about freshman sports not being cut....but ! Every year since the 70's the A2 administration has threatened cutting teachers and many times sports programs. Number of teachers cut or sports programs - ZERO ! (PS...the dropping of some freshman teams have not eliminated freshman, they are allowed to play JV or Varsity). There must be another way to frighten people and make awareness of money needed for public schools - as this one is getting old !
A2parent
Wed, Jul 13, 2011 : 11:25 p.m.
Ok - we will all agree to pay more to keep LAX and boys basketball. You still have not shared the budget, the cost savings, the number of students by school, the number of athletes by school, the number of athletes by sport. According to Liz Margolis in the previous article that there is a better understanding of the process and decisions made -- to those that were included in the panel discussion. Who was selected to participate - what sports were represented? If you don't mind, please share with the rest of the community that has been asking for information since the initial announcements were made. A2.com - if you can, please provide further details related to the statement - "the directors also clarified what it means to be a 'club sport' as opposed to a fully funded varsity sport.". Did anything change? Do all sports applying for club status, now automatically get club status if they can fund themselves?