So my son was recruited for an elite sport. At time of interview, they did not disclose that decision was made to stop the elite sport in two years. At end of year 1, we were officially told and hence started searching for new school. All we got so far was an admission they missed up, and a “we apologize” nothing more. They basically recruited a couple of kids to keep them competitive for last season and then basically hung out those kids to dry?
What recourse besides leaving? What have others schools done? To me, they should offer to help in searching for a new school with a similar program, and refund part of what we paid in good faith.
That’s awful, @Canuckdad. I’ve followed your story and can’t believe this has happened to your son. I don’t have anything insightful to offer, but I do hope you get some form of satisfaction from the school. I’m so sorry this happened.
We tend to believe things happen for a reason. Already he reached out to one of the schools he was wait-listed at last year and while the coach has no room, he did offer to reach out to where he knew schools were still looking.
2 other boys were in same point. The school needed them for the last year without any regard for them the year after thinking they would just be “happy” with the academics.
How awful, I’m so sorry. This is a Canadian school?
I would definitely push for any help they can provide in finding a new school placement. That’s beyond reasonable to ask for. Obviously they can’t guarantee anything since they can’t force other schools to open up a spot, but I’d ask that they leverage any resources they do have to help. Work with the current coach and athletic director as well as the administration. Have your son talk to current teachers ASAP to ask for recommendations and their advocacy.
As for refunds, I would absolutely request a return of any deposits or tuition payments for next year that you’ve already made (assuming you’re sure he’s leaving before next year). But I honestly doubt that they’d refund tuition for current or past years. From a transactional perspective they’ve already provided the service that tuition paid for. School contracts are one year at a time; if instead it was your family that chose to leave for other reasons then the school couldn’t require you to keep paying for the rest of his expected years.
Sorry to hear about this. It also happens at the college level. Recently Brown, and several other Ivies decided to suddenly drop some sports. Much of this boils down to money.
In our case it was a case of the school (headmaster) deciding “no elite” sports. The elite sport meaning boys and girls hockey. It is not for a lack of funding. New athletic director joined during the pandemic with no sense of school’s history. The alumni are slowly finding out about this but, way too late to change anything for next year. The decision was made at a lower level.
Similar story about ‘elite sports’ at my son’s high school. Suddenly in his 3rd year, the new athletic director decided that squash was too elitist, and deprioritized it. I imagine other sports like sailing, crew, golf will also be a target.
The worse is the school has been flippant about it. An apology and nothing further. Sadly,they have changed the school’s website and no longer even list the coaching staff on it. The man tried to build a really good program and was doing so when the pandemic hit. My son really liked him as a coach. He was a hockey lifer. School backdoor politics. Kids end up suffering.
I’m really sorry for anyone caught in the mind of such a cut.
With that said, I this we might be seeing more cuts at the college and prep school level. The Stanford attempt at this – ultimately undone – cited having added sports where there were no west coast opponents for example. But now, it’s hard to unwind that.
I think there was a tendency to add sports at some point and now schools are realizing that maintaining them doesn’t just cost money, it requires them to shape classes around them. And that a some size, they just can’t be that good at all of them. I don’t have a crystal ball and hardly expect it to be everywhere all at once, but I would not be surprised to see this at the margins in a number of places.
The trend I am seeing is a business one. As schools draw from internationals who will pay full loads, they no longer need athletics which cost in FA/staffing/resources.
You are right, teachers are more vocal about students missing class and school and frankly, schools have become lazy.
Well, I didn’t mean the teachers. I meant that admissions now had a mandate to get squash players or wrestlers, etc. The challenge of having competitive rosters in so many sports.
And yes on business. Around us, everyone dropped gymnastics ages ago because of insurance costs. It doesn’t mean tons of kids don’t do it, but they do it through clubs, not school.
At a high level, I get the problem but the practical realities of cutting a sport - not sure how to do that well. As you are experiencing.
I mention teachers because it was one of the factors mentioned to me. Elite sports means kids fall behind and teachers raise red flags and would rather have less disruptions.
Reality. Strictly business. Incidentally, my son’s schools raised tuition on top of things right after a pandemic of cutting services without any refund.
Really? Our squash team has been doing very well—both teams went to nationals, a healthy amount of recruits—I’m surprised to hear this. Fencing, on the other hand…
It happened at Dartmouth too. And they didn’t even hide the reason - admissions/President wanted more spots to build the incoming class as they saw fit, at the direct expense of recruited athletes. I can’t remember all the sports but IIRC they cut something like 20 fewer athletic recruits overall which resulted in the outright elimination of athletic programs including lightweight rowing, golf, some swimming…maybe others I can’t recall.
Not unexpectedly there was a huge outcry about this and at least some of these sports/teams were reinstated, at least one on a “trial” basis to see if they could still field a competitive squad without recruits.