<p>Ok, I’m a comic-page nerd -so much so that I read some daily comics online if they aren’t offered in my newspaper. Funky has been a decades long favorite ( well, it does tend toward the morose lately…, but never mind). Current thread is post school bond election and the school district is doing away with sports and music…<br>
I’m wondering, have any CC members been there when their district really dropped a major varsity sport (basketball in the comic), or huge EC like band - what happened? How did kids and parents fill the gap?</p>
<p>When I was a senior in HS, voters did not approve the school budget so the district adopted an “austerity budget”. That meant NO after-school or extracurricular activities. No fall sports: football, field hockey, soccer, cross country all cancelled at both high schools in the district. No field band (and the band from one of the high schools routinely finished in the top two at States). </p>
<p>There was no way to really fill the void on a large scale. I did not have a senior season of soccer. No homecoming. Not much to do for the hundreds of students who were suddenly without their school-related ECs. </p>
<p>In October of that year, there was a special ballot to reinstate ECs and busing. Both passed so we were back to normal for the winter seasons.</p>
<p>Wow, how painful for you students, and how difficult school funding is in so many places…</p>
<p>When one of the towns in our county cut sports to balance the budget everyone - even rival teams donated to the cause - they ended up saving about 20 teams through private donations.: [To</a> Keep Mount Vernon’s High School Sports Alive, Even Rivals Contribute Money - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/education/17sports.html]To”>To Keep Mount Vernon’s High School Sports Alive, Even Rivals Contribute Money - The New York Times)</p>
<p>Athletics and music are always the first on the chopping block in my town, because it gets people riled up enough to vote for extra funds.</p>
<p>It’s blatantly manipulative, everyone knows it, but it keeps happening. God forbid they cut an administrator or “curriculum advisor” or some other overhead.</p>
<p>They always came up with some way to fund music and athletics at my kid’s high school - they just didn’t have much in the way of academic counselors or advisors. Maybe they just figured that those sorts of staff people were just “overhead.” </p>
<p>I guess one person’s “manipulation” is another person’s prioritization.</p>