It appears — for the moment — the Jefferson County R-1 School District won’t be closing a handful of schools to balance its budget.
So where will the estimated $40 million in cuts needed over the next two years come from now? Athletics might very well be the next target.
The school board decided Thursday, Jan. 15, to pass on closing a few middle schools, opting only to close Russell Elementary in Arvada. The lone closing is just a drop in the bucket of what the district needs to do when it comes to cuts. The money is going to have to come from somewhere.
I advise anyone who cares about athletics — or any other extracurricular activities — in the district to keep their eyes and ears open so they don’t get blindsided by a drastic cut.
I’ll take you back to the late 1980s. I was on a student committee with the task of trying to keep Lakewood Junior High School open. It came down to closing Lakewood or Creighton junior high schools. Clearly our committee didn’t do a good job.
Lakewood Junior High closed after the 1988-89 school year. I was a member of the last 8th-grade class to walk out the doors at LJHS. I remember riding my bike home on the last day of school with my home- and away-basketball jerseys in my backpack.
Our coach was nice enough to let our team take those since the Cubs jerseys wouldn’t be needed over at Creighton, mainly because the district also made the cut of eliminating middle school athletics districtwide.
Twenty years later, the damage done by taking away middle school sports is evident. Some freshmen are entering high school with little or none of the basic skills for many sports. Other school districts across the state have a leg up on building athletic programs because they do provide sports at the middle school level.
Organizations like Gold Crown, which runs basketball, golf and volleyball programs, along with privately run baseball, soccer and softball clubs have picked up the slack. However, it’s almost a necessity now for kids to be a part of a club team before high school to compete at a high varsity level on par with the top athletic programs in the state.
It will be interesting to see the school district’s next move when it comes to budget cuts. A solution must be devised by June.
Athletics eat up just a small portion of the district’s annual budget. By the way, the budget for the 2009-10 school year was close to $1 billion. However, I have a feeling athletics won’t be immune from the cuts.
So what could be put on the chopping block? Limiting lower level programs? Creating more co-opts with some of the smaller sports like golf, gymnastics, swimming and tennis? Trimming back travel, equipment and facility budgets for schools?
Just keep a wary eye out and fight if athletic funds end up in the crosshairs.