School Committee OKs GMS hoops team

The Galvin Middle School, still riding high off the smashing success of its new football program, will now have a couple of hoops teams to root for this winter after School Committee members, following a lengthy deliberation Thursday night, talked themselves into funding both a girls’ and boys’ basketball team on a one-year trial basis.

The middle school’s proposal, presented by athletics coordinator Bill Bendell on behalf of principal Tom LaLiberte and assistant principal Tom Walsh, was to take roughly $6,200 in unused operating funds that had already been earmarked for middle school extracurricular programming and use it to finance two interscholastic basketball teams that would play against other area middle schools. Bendell said the school funds would cover approximately 80 percent of the total program costs, and he proposed a user fee of $100 — an amount later adjusted to $125 — to cover the remaining 20 percent.

Bendell said school administrators had been struck by the positive impact the football team was having on the culture of the school and thought that basketball might be another way to engage students after school and promote school spirit throughout the otherwise long winter months.

However, what initially seemed like a slam dunk for the Galvin quickly evolved into a deep discussion about the fairness, or lack thereof, of handing money over to the basketball program after flatly refusing to fund any part of the football budget less than 16 months earlier.

Committee Chairman Reuki Schutt in particular could not get past this fact, especially knowing how hard the football organizers had worked securing private donations in order to put a team on the field in 2009 — the program’s inaugural season.

Schutt admitted that she had harbored doubts about the feasibility of a privately funded football team; however, she said she is now “so proud of this organization,” adding that “everybody loves the [middle school] football team.”

As for the basketball proposal, Schutt made it clear that she was “100 percent” behind the idea in theory, but could not support any arrangement that relied on school funding, telling Bendell, “My problem is in giving you the funding. I’m sorry.” She also did not like the idea of someone else “finding a place in our budget that can be cut and then being told where to spend the money.”

John Bonnanzio also expressed concern with the “equity issue” as it related to football, and at one point it seemed as if both Liz Salisbury and Jill Stevens were prepared to reject Bendell’s request, as both questioned why school officials chose travel basketball rather than a more “inclusive” sport such as track and field or even an intramural basketball program.

But according to Bendell, school officials did, in fact, consider other sports before settling on girls’ and boys’ basketball as the most practical and cost-effective options. He added that each team, despite carrying just 12 to 15 players, will also require score keepers, perhaps team managers, and, hopefully, fans in large numbers.

Eventually, everyone but Schutt agreed that the proposal, although imperfect and hastily assembled, was worth a try for at least the upcoming season. They also agreed to increase the proposed user fee to $125 so as to align it with the current high school user fee.

For committee member Cindy Thomas, her support came down to a few important factors, most notably the fact that the funds had been set aside for exactly this type of activity. At the same time, she encouraged Bendell to evaluate middle school athletics as a whole and then possibly return to the School Committee with a long-range plan.

From Bonnanzio’s vantage point, while the inequity between football and basketball was enough to give him pause, it was not, in his opinion, enough to warrant killing the idea simply to make a point.

Said Bonnanzio of the basketball program, “It’s here. It’s a good idea. It’s relatively inexpensive, and it keeps our kids busy.”

Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=1389

Posted by Jay Turner on Nov 25 2010. Filed under News, Schools. Both comments and pings are currently closed.