|
|
|
High school and middle school athletics underwent significant change Monday night with decisions by the Boonville School Board to cut all seventh- and ninth-grade teams for the 2010-11 school year.
The notion that cutting athletics could have an adverse effect on student achievement pervaded the meeting, with several board members and district administrators commenting that some students would become lost without school sports.
There had been a proposal on the agenda to combine seventh- and eighth-grade athletics for the 2010-11 school year, rather than cut the seventh grade altogether. But Jeff Francis, Laura Speed Elliott Middle School athletics director, said cutting seventh-grade athletics rather than combining the two would save about the same amount of money, and board members and school administrators expressed concerns about a potential lack of coaching supervision if the two were combined.
Also on Monday, the board:
- Cut $50,000* from the $150,000 allocated for the 2010-11 school year technology acquisition.
- Heard from Superintendent Mark Ficken, who volunteered to cut his spouse’s health insurance, a move the board approved. The move will save the district $4,665 dollars in next year’s budget.
- Tabled decisions on any cuts or changes to the in-school and out-of-school suspensions and on vacating the Central Success Center.
- Learned that the district salary and benefits committee is scheduled to meet with representatives from the Missouri Educators Unified Health Plan on Wednesday to discuss any changes to the district's health insurance policy.
*Editor's note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the amount the Boonville School Board cut from the 2010-11 school technology acquisition budget. The board cut $50,000 from a $150,000 budget.
High school and middle school athletics underwent significant change Monday night with decisions by the Boonville School Board to cut all seventh- and ninth-grade teams for the 2010-11 school year.
The notion that cutting athletics could have an adverse effect on student achievement pervaded the meeting, with several board members and district administrators commenting that some students would become lost without school sports.
There had been a proposal on the agenda to combine seventh- and eighth-grade athletics for the 2010-11 school year, rather than cut the seventh grade altogether. But Jeff Francis, Laura Speed Elliott Middle School athletics director, said cutting seventh-grade athletics rather than combining the two would save about the same amount of money, and board members and school administrators expressed concerns about a potential lack of coaching supervision if the two were combined.
Also on Monday, the board:
- Cut $50,000* from the $150,000 allocated for the 2010-11 school year technology acquisition.
- Heard from Superintendent Mark Ficken, who volunteered to cut his spouse’s health insurance, a move the board approved. The move will save the district $4,665 dollars in next year’s budget.
- Tabled decisions on any cuts or changes to the in-school and out-of-school suspensions and on vacating the Central Success Center.
- Learned that the district salary and benefits committee is scheduled to meet with representatives from the Missouri Educators Unified Health Plan on Wednesday to discuss any changes to the district's health insurance policy.
*Editor's note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the amount the Boonville School Board cut from the 2010-11 school technology acquisition budget. The board cut $50,000 from a $150,000 budget.
