Athletics News
Posted February 27, 2015 at 5:26 am by Tim Dustrude
San Juan Island School District and Island Rec seek to continue their Partnership to Fund School Athletics Programs
For the last five years San Juan Island Park and Recreation District (Island Rec) and the San Juan Island School District have maintained an effective partnership to fully fund the high school sports program. Under this partnership there has been no financial impact on basic education or school levy funds. They now seek to continue this partnership through the upcoming Island Rec Levy election.
Athletic Director Rod Turnbull stated “Educational research decisively shows significant benefits to students who participate in athletics. Beyond health and fitness, school athletes have better classroom attendance, higher academic performance, and enjoy a stronger school culture. On San Juan Island one of the most important qualities of high school athletics is that it crosses all boundaries of our high school-age population.”
The Friday Harbor High School sports program is open to all academically eligible high school age students, offering 16 sports teams with a participation rate of over 300. Students who participate come from homeschool programs, public school and private school.
Recognizing the importance of this partnership to our community and students the San Juan Island School District Board of Directors passed the following resolution on January 28, 2015;
Resolution 15-001, RECREATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR DISTRICT STUDENTS (the following points are excerpts. The complete text is available by contacting the district).
“… Whereas our community has generously supported our levy requests to the maximum allowable by state legislative mandate and;…
…Whereas the San Juan Island School District has no further taxing capacity and;…
…Whereas there are no viable budgetary options to continue a robust school sports program should the community decide to not renew the San Juan Island Park and Recreation District (Island Rec) and;…
Be it therefore resolved, that in order to maintain a commitment to academic excellence, the San Juan Island School District Board of Directors strongly affirms its dependence upon the San Juan Island Park and Recreation District (Island Rec) levy to fund high school athletics.”
Signed by the San Juan Island School District Board of Directors
Ralph Hahn, Director
Brent Snow, Director
Jenn Furber, Director
June Arnold, Vice Chair
Jack McKenna, Board Chair
Rick Thompson, Superintendent
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Categories: Around Here
4 comments:
4 comments...
I like school sports. That said, why are you guys going for double the amount of money you asked for 6 years ago?
Maybe you should consider asking for the same amount of funding for the next 6 years. You spent way more money than you were entitled to and blamed it on the county. Now you claim you are running a tight budget. Yes, I aree with that! A tight runaway budget! Good luck!
Mr. Bishop,
I appreciate your love for school sports and your concern for good stewardship of your tax dollars. I will try to make this complicated scenario simple. A levy does not work in the manner you elude to. Island Rec (as well as the school) had a clear budget 6 years ago. A levy amount, based on then current assessed property values, was established to meet that budget. The tax income established six years ago has not changed. What did change was the amount per $1000 of assessed value of your home and property. As they dropped, the amount per $1000 increased in order to meet our consistent budget. Island Rec has done an amazing amount of growth with that long ago established budget. Island rec is only asking for 4 additional cents over the last tax season to continue growth and provide the same level of quality programming. This growth will impact everybody from 4 to 94 years old. Please visit the IslandRec.org website to get a better picture of what this levy covers. I am excited for the future!
One more point to clear up…The action of increasing the cents/$1000 to cover the consistent budget is where the Assessors error exists. Never before had property values dropped as they had during this last levy cycle. In other taxing districts, the rules allow for that to happen. Island Rec falls into the category of “Junior” Taxing District. Juniors get caps placed upon them. This was missed by both the County Assessor and the State of Washington Auditor. Had it been caught earlier, then Island Rec would have asked the voting public directly for a new levy amount.
How are you guys going to pay back all the money that you received in error? I am still trying to figure out how the 4 cents you speak about equates to double the amount you asked for in the last budget. Are you really saying that you want double the amount you got last time and then you will ask for additional monies on top of that to pay back the Citizens of San Juan Island?
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