JV sports supporters speak out at KHSD meeting
Parents, teachers, coaches brainstorm ways to save threatened programs
| Monday, Jun 22 2009 11:10 PM
Last Updated Monday, Jun 22 2009 11:10 PM
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Casey Christie / The Californian
North High school football players playing against Edison High during a hot Friday night in Bakersfield.
Brains and brawn showed up in abundance for the Kern High School District board meeting Monday evening.
Speaking with a fervor befitting a Friday night football playoff game, a full board room of parents, coaches and teachers spoke out about the possibility that junior varsity sports may be cut by the district due to budget issues.
They spoke passionately about how much value the district’s junior varsity sports programs bring for students, and the great harm that could arise should the program be cut due to the state’s budget deficit.
Cecile Shanklin, dressed in a dark blue Drillers polo shirt, and with the experience of ushering three sons through high school sports careers, said there must certainly be other, “outside the box,” ways to make JV sports happen before an outright cut of the program.
Bakersfield High head football coach Paul Golla said the same, suggesting the perhaps JV teams could carpool to games.
Golla advocated a think-tank-like process “to at least get all the ideas out there,” to retain JV sports.
“A lot of coaches want this to happen, I think the community will step up,” Golla said.
Eliminating JV sports programs in football, basketball, volleyball, softball and baseball would save the district $430,000, part of the $3.7 million in proposed cuts from next year’s budget, the district said.
Last week the board discussed cutting the JV level, leaving two levels of competition the each of the sports offered by the district.
Trustee Bryan Batey said every single cut had the possibility of hurting disadvantaged kids more than any other group of students, and the cuts were balanced, and made across-the-board with this in mind.
Batey picked up on Golla’s idea about coming up with alternative ideas — spreading coaches salaries from level to level, for instance — might be a possible way to salvage JV sports, even in the event funding is cut.
Stacy and Kurt Wingate spoke about the “hidden costs” that would come with axing JV sports, and suggested there was plenty of community support for keeping the programs running.
Cutting JV sports would create a “gigantic hole,” Stacey Wingate said.
“Show me where the $430,000 is, where the expenses are,” she said, “and we’ll cut them.”
Shanklin favored a club sports model, where schools could decide to play specific sports supported by booster clubs.
Shanklin said one of her sons wouldn’t have gone to school were it not for football. Now he attends Bakersfield College with plans to be an engineer, she said.
Trustees will vote on the issue at a July 2 board meeting.
Top students honored
Before the fiery discussion, the district honored the smartest kids in the room. This year, 44 students who averaged a 4.49 GPA in their three final years of high school (4.50 is perfect) were honored as First in the Class award winners.
The scholars are the district’s “best and brightest,” said Superintendent Don Carter, who noted their excellence in multiple subjects over many years as a tremendous achievement of not only the students, but also their parents.
Each student received a $1,000 scholarship donated by community sponsors.
They will go on to become surgeons and scientists, engineers and editors, doctors and marine biologists, among many careers named by the students.
Supporting their choices 100 percent is the way to produce sterling students, Charles Wittenberg said about his three children — Elizabeth, Grant and Joshua — who are Shafter High graduates, each with perfect 4.5 GPAs.
“The worst thing is a career they are not happy about, then it’s just a job,” Wittenberg said.
