 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| SEATTLE PRINCIPALS DELAY CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT VOTE June 1, 2007 |
|
"There were some strong feelings expressed on both sides" of the issue, district athletic coordinator Al Hairston told the Seattle Times. Earlier in the week, Hairston said that concerns about the rising costs of transportation to and from sporting events was the "driving factor" behind the proposal to pull Garfield, Franklin, Ballard and Roosevelt out of KingCo, whose other member schools are in the suburbs east of Lake Washington. But on the day of the scheduled vote, the Seattle Times published two guest editorials, one by Garfield jv volleyball coach Jack Hamann. Hamann questioned whether the district could actually save money by pulling the four schools back into Metro. He also pointed out that the large-school alliance had helped build links between inner-city and suburban schools. Hamann and others also questioned whether the conference could be competitive, considering that the three largest schools (Roosevelt, Garfield and Ballard) were all nearly four times as large as some of the smallest schools in Metro. Many of the Metro schools have a hard time fielding enough players for varisty teams, and some do not offer junior varsity in some sports. After the postponment was announced, Hairston told the Times that he had backed off on his earlier prediction that the principals would vote to pull the four schools back into Metro. "I hate to say this, but I'm basically on the fence on this one. I think there are pluses and minuses on both sides. That's why it's a difficult decision." Hairston said the principals "will collect opinions, options and more information" before they meet" again on the issue, likely in August or September. See below:
FROM THE SEATTLE TIMES Opinion | Save KingCo alliance Cheese buses. That's what kids call those great big yellow boxes on wheels that the rest of us know as school buses. I am now a few laps past 50 years old, and have been a junior-varsity coach for a Seattle public high school for a decade. And that means I still spend plenty of time riding vinyl bench seats on cheese buses. Ten years ago, a bus carrying Garfield High School's inner-city volleyball team pulled into the parking lot of an affluent high school on the Sammamish Plateau. Our young athletes stared with wonder; few realized that a public school could look so clean, modern and spacious. One said she felt as if we'd arrived at a mall. Another wondered if she'd see any non-white faces on the campus. That same year, players for a different Eastside team made the short drive across the lake for their first visit to Garfield's historic gym. This time, our visitors did the staring; the graffiti, the filthy bathrooms, the raucous hallways made some tremble and others sneer. Most seemed anxious to get back on the bus the moment the match ended. Why, then, were we in the same league? By 1996, three storied Seattle schools -- Garfield, Roosevelt and Franklin -- had grown much larger than the rest of their Metro League brethren, and were forced to set off in search of a new athletic home. An invitation came from across Lake Washington, home to the suburban schools of the KingCo Conference. Initial concerns about increased time and expense of travel were trumped by a rather idealistic consideration: It would be a unique opportunity to bridge the social, racial and economic divide between city and suburb. Ballard opened its newer, larger campus, and joined us in 2002. In most sports, the first few years were difficult. Eastside schools, with superior facilities, weight rooms, financial support and strong junior-high sports programs, regularly mowed down those of us in the city. At one point, the Garfield varsity volleyball team lost 36 matches in a row. More important, there seemed to be little meaningful dialogue between opposing schools. City schools thought suburban kids were spoiled and superficial; Eastside kids assumed we were undisciplined and possibly dangerous. But everything changed. Several city sports began to emerge as statewide powers. Champions arose in swimming, tennis, cross country and track and field; city teams in soccer and gymnastics became contenders. Garfield's volleyball team improved to become one of the best in the league, while Ballard's football team reached the state-championship game. Boys and girls basketball continued to dominate. Best of all, walls started crumbling. Kids from the city and suburbs began to see each other as something other than clichés. In volleyball, Seattle girls joined offseason club teams and became close friends with Eastside players. Volleyball coaches began meeting several times a year, forging friendships of their own. Kids began to see beyond the graffiti and the spacious hallways and started looking forward to visiting each other's gyms. Now, however, some within the Seattle School District want to dismantle those bridges we worked so hard to build. Ostensibly, the district tells us it has become too expensive to pay for all those cheese buses to cross the lake. They also claim that lengthy commutes to the Eastside force students to miss classroom time. But those reasons don't add up. The physical distance between 4A city schools and some of their KingCo 4A rivals is actually less than the commute whenever Ingraham and Nathan Hale in the north face Chief Sealth and Rainier Beach to the south. And thanks to today's crowded roads and highways, it is often almost as fast to use diamond lanes to commute to many Eastside schools as it is to negotiate busy streets in the city. Few athletes have to miss class time to commute to their contests. Further, the district does not pay for buses by the mile. Neither does it pay by the hour; many sports run for uncertain lengths (extra innings and mercy rule in baseball and softball; overtime in basketball). Instead, the district pays a flat fee for each bus ride, whether the opponent is five miles away or 15, or whether the contest lasts two hours or four. Although the district says it will save money by taking the four 4A schools out of KingCo, it hasn't explained how. There are some, we are told, who long for the days when Seattle School District students only played each other. That was also back when high schools were of similar size. These days, Garfield's freshman class is larger than the combined sophomore, junior and senior classes of several of the schools we'd be forced to play if we're brought back into the Metro League. If this move is being proposed to give Garfield, Roosevelt and Franklin's football teams some relief from beatings they usually get from Eastside schools, it merely shifts that burden -- in all sports -- to the smaller public schools. It's time for the district to offer better reasons for pulling out of KingCo. The issue deserves the attention of the district's incoming superintendent and of the full school board. Before anyone decides, they should hop on a cheese bus next time we cross the lake. Jack Hamann, junior-varsity volleyball coach at Garfield, is an author and freelance journalist. FROM THE SEATTLE TIMES Opinion | Reunite Metro schools Moving Ballard, Franklin, Garfield and Roosevelt to the Metro League and reuniting this historic district might be the best decision made by the Seattle Public Schools in years. As a recent alumnus of a KingCo 4A school in the city limits (Roosevelt 2004), I can testify to the futility of the current situation. Suburban schools on the Eastside have a number of major advantages in athletic competition. Their suburban location allows for larger, centralized training facilities. Football stadiums worthy of hosting games and tennis facilities where teams can hold full-squad practices are examples. Furthermore, athletic programs in the years preceding high school give Eastside schools a secondary advantage. Seattle Public Schools do not offer football until the ninth grade. Students on the Eastside begin playing football at a much younger age. When I played football for Roosevelt, most of my teammates were strapping on pads for the first time as freshmen. Given this fact, it should come as no surprise that the four Seattle KingCo 4A schools have performed miserably against Eastside football teams. The best reason for the league to reunite — which is also the hardest to convey — is the history and romance associated with having all 10 Seattle public high schools competing as equals in a single league. As a student at Roosevelt, I often wanted to compete against my friends at Nathan Hale or Ingraham, but never had the chance. Instead, we played our games against schools like Eastlake or Bothell, where none of us had friends or acquaintances. We always played our hardest and put the most emphasis on our games against city schools, when bragging rights were actually worth something. I seriously encourage those in positions of power to fight for this change and return the Metro League to its former glory. The benefits of this shift far outweigh the costs. Samuel Francis Fisher, a 2004 Roosevelt graduate, is a student at Dartmouth College.
FROM THE SEATTLE TIMES No decision made on return to Metro Seattle public high-school principals sat down Thursday to decide whether the city's four Class 4A schools should return to the Metro League. They wound up calling a long timeout. They tabled a recommendation that Franklin, Garfield, Roosevelt and Ballard leave the suburban KingCo Conference and rejoin the Metro League in the fall of 2008. Under the proposal, Metro would become a 3A-4A league. The principals from the 10 public high schools met for more than three hours and didn't take a vote. "A consensus wasn't going to be reached, and the motion was tabled," said Al Hairston, coordinator of athletics for the Seattle Public School District. Hairston indicated that the principals probably won't deal with the issue again until they meet in late August or September. Any recommendation at that time to bring the schools back to Metro would go to new superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson for approval. Hairston admitted he was surprised the measure wasn't passed. He had expected passage after a Tuesday meeting where no vote was taken because three of 10 principals were absent. "I really can't say what spun it," said Hairston. However, he added, "The more we discussed it, the more complicated we realized it was." Hairston said, "There were some strong feelings expressed on both sides. "The majority of 4A schools are very interested in coming back and 3As are concerned under what circumstances [the 4A schools would come back]." The main argument for returning the 4A schools to the Metro League is a sentiment that the city's public schools should be in the same league. The move also should reduce transportation costs and missed class time, Hairston said. Moving to Metro also would provide a better chance for success for city teams in sports dominated by Eastside schools. The combined record of city schools in football against suburban teams is 27-214 over 10 seasons. The primary argument against the 4A schools rejoining Metro is that they are more than double the size of some schools in the league and would have an unfair advantage over the weakest programs, which already have trouble fielding teams. There also is the argument that the interaction between the urban and suburban schools is beneficial. Hairston said, "I hate to say this, but I'm basically on the fence on this one. I think there are pluses and minuses on both sides. That's why it's a difficult decision." Among the other issues are whether the 4A schools would lose district-tournament berths by moving to Metro and whether the 4A junior-varsity and C teams could find enough opponents in the city. Hairston said the feeling is that if the principals vote to bring back the 4A schools they must present a plan on which there is considerable agreement and not just hand the superintendent a vote tally. Hairston said schools are obligated to tell the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association about a year in advance if they are changing leagues. The new two-year WIAA cycle will begin in the fall of 2008. Hairston said there is a possibility that Franklin, the smallest Seattle 4A school and the one that has the most trouble against suburban competition, may drop to 3A for the 2008-09 because of declining enrollment. Franklin's winless softball team was blasted 64-0 by Woodinville this season. The Franklin girls soccer team hasn't won a game in eight years, the volleyball team is on a 50-match losing streak and the boys soccer team snapped a four-year losing streak this spring by defeating 3A Evergreen in a nonleague match. If the decision is made that the city 4A schools should return to Metro, Hairston said there now are differing opinions about whether they would have to be voted back in by the entire league. In addition to the six Seattle public 3A schools, the Metro league also includes six private schools plus Bainbridge. "These are Seattle schools and basically the Metro League is a Seattle league," he said, citing one argument why a vote wouldn't be necessary. The league started as a public-school league in 1914 and started adding private schools in the 1970s. Even if a vote is needed, Hairston predicted it would be favorable for re-admittance. |