JV sports dodges a bullet, barely
August 8th, 2008 by WesThis one, I would have to say, was too close for comfort.
The BOE voted late last night (11:55 p.m.) to basically protect public school athletics — essentially JV sports — from a proposed $1 million in budget cuts for the 2009-2010 school year. The vote came only after almost four hours of testimony and some quarreling over the fairness and wording of member John Penebacker's motion to amend Breene Harimoto's motion to remand the DOE's proposed budget cuts.
It was a rather bold move by Penebacker, aggressively and specifically labeling athletics (and other smaller-budget programs) as exempt from the budget axe. Chairperson Donna Ikeda called it "creating sacred cows."
The amended motion passed by a vote of seven to four, much to Ikeda's chagrin, but I think she did make her point that "everything should be looked at" since "none of the programs are less valuable than others" to those who support them.
Sports got spared this time, but you can only get a pass so many times before it's your turn to take a hit.
Last night's vote really only bought JV athletics some time, a year to be exact.
I believe in the next 12 months, our sports leaders and supporters are going to have to step it up even more and generate more revenue to prepare for the next round of cuts, when athletics may not be so lucky to avoid being hit.
As State Rep. James Tokioka said in reference to relying on the legislature to bail out athletics, "That's a game of Russian roulette I wouldn't want to play."
We all can breathe a sigh of relief today.
But we better start thinking of money solutions tomorrow.
August 8th, 2008 at 7:39 am
I agree with the fundamental points you make, although I lean more towards Donna Ikeda's "no scared cows" approach than Penebacker's stance.
Whose responsibility is it to come up with a plan to generate the revenues? The BOE? The DOE? Principals? Athletic Directors? Coaches? Parents?
Unless someone or some group steps up to take a leadership role here and organizes the other "stakeholders," it's not going to get done.
August 8th, 2008 at 9:14 am
thank goodness.
common sense finally worked.
.5%??? how can you say athletics is an equal part of the overall education priority when you don't fund it as such???
August 8th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Well, when is it gonna be D.O.E. adminstration's turn to take a hit? When's the last time you saw in the paper, "D.O.E. Adminstration lays off xx amount of workers due to budget." WHEN have you seen that? NEVER. Hard to lay off people there; come to think of it, the whole idea of laying off state worker types is pretty much nil when compared with recent layoffs on Molokai, Aloha Airlines, SeaLife Park, etc.
Where I work, my position had to be, um, "moved around." Turned out to be a blessing in disguise after those two years I had to take a paycut.
But, you never see cuts in jobs on the D.O.E. administrative level. Why? Ask your legislator WHY? And do we need a full accounting of just how many employees there are on the adminstrative level. We need more teachers; not office workers when it comes to education here in Hawaii or anywhere else.
I used to stay silent on these topics. Now I CALL my legislator. Things are heating up, D.O.E. -- guys like me, who never gave a damn before, are starting to be like Batman. Wake up, D.O.E. . . . greed dream is over . . . gotta start the responsibility train now . . . choo-chooo!!!!
August 8th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Honestly, Board Member is the sacred cow. Over 400 folks attended the BOE
meeting, and don't you think the peeps (THE TAXPAYERS AND STAKEHOLDERS) have spoken?
I cannot believe what the BOE is thinking.
Eliminate pre-algebra and send students straight to algebra!
And lets see what would happen.
Mahalo to all to testified!
August 11th, 2008 at 11:14 am
Ahtletics needs to find anindependent revenue stream NOW. I sympathize and agree with the comments above. But believing that the DOE is going to cut administrative positions and then use those savings to fund athletics--that's a pipe dream. The DOE may cut administrative positions when mandated but the savings are not going to be used to fund athletics.
Someone needs to take charge and create revenues. Otherwise, the reprieve will be a one-year relief and twelve months from now, we'll be going through the same things again.
August 11th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Meanwhile, Stephen Downes of the editorial board writes that since athletics teams make cuts they are more akin to entertainment and don't deserve a nickel.
http://editorial.honadvblogs.com/2008/08/11/whats-the-point-of-high-school-sports-anyway/
August 12th, 2008 at 1:33 am
The concern about "cuts" and team selection was brought up at Thursday's Board of Education meeting by a board member who mentioned how people in arts and music promoted their activities as ones that "take all comers."
HHSAA executive director Keith Amemiya addressed this question in his testimony Thursday by clarifying that most high school sports teams DO NOT cut players. Many of the high-profile ones — football, basketball, baseball — do limit rosters, but others like cross country, track and field, judo, paddling, bowling, etc. "take all comers" including those who are first-time participants.
Amemiya said Hawai‘i public schools offer up to 19 different sports, and if an athlete does get cut from one team, he or she is encouraged to try out for another.
August 12th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Does anyone know which board members voted to cut JV sports?? Who were the 4 members?? It is an election year and I think the voters would like to know. Judgement day is coming for the 4 BOE members who voted in favor to cut JV sports and that day is ELECTION DAY!!!
August 12th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
It is important to clarify that the vote itself was not, "All in favor of JV sports, raise your hand; all against ..."
The vote was on an amended motion in which the proposed budget cuts would be sent back to the DOE minus the items to be exempted as identified by board member John Penebacker. The other items included the Challenger Center of Hawai‘i and Nanaikapono Elementary School's Hawaiian Museum.
At least two board members expressed concern not so much that athletics would be immune, but that ALL of the items on Penebacker's amended motion would be singled out as untouchable, even by $1.
So basically, they were not necessarily voting against JV sports, but against the idea of "creating sacred cows" in the budget cut process.