Move forward now with JPS athletic changes

Talk about it

Volunteers spent countless hours examining athletics at Jamestown Public Schools and provided recommendations on ways to improve them. Now it’s time for the administration to make that happen.

One activities director should be overseeing all athletic programs in the high school and middle school. But administration feels strongly that the middle school activities director should answer to the middle school principal, not the high school activities director.

By not realigning the chain of command — which the Jamestown Public School Board unanimously agreed to do when it adopted the proposed changes presented by a volunteer committee — it is not possible to truly achieve vertical articulation.

In simple terms, with vertical articulation, a head high school coach would decide on the skillsets taught to athletes at all skill levels through middle school.

Superintendent Bob Toso said it would cost $70,000 to implement the change in the chain of command, by paying for a receptionist and extra costs associated with the move of the current high school activities director to the main administration building.

But the School Board balked at paying out more money when it’s already deficit spending.

So now what?

Refusing to implement changes that were the result of more than 24 months of work isn’t the right message after volunteers put in the time to gather data and offer recommendations. The School Board approved realigning the chain of command and it’s the administration’s job to make that happen. Philosophy starts with administration and filters down.

The process started when one person came to the School Board with a complaint about the way athletics were run at the high school. That led to a meeting with about 90 people with similar complaints.

From there a committee of volunteers was formed to survey stakeholders and compile data on thoughts and opinions. That group took longer than normal to present the data after a hard drive crash forced them to repeat a lot of work.

The data was eventually presented to the School Board at a special meeting at the high school auditorium in November 2011.

From there another volunteer committee was formed to discuss the changes and figure out the best way to implement them. Some of the changes they suggested were the coaches’ council and hiring a trainer and strength coach.

At the most recent School Board meeting it was decided that this newly formed coaches’ council would work with administration on solving problems, with the outside help of a facilitator. We hope they can do so.

It’s time to set aside differences, find a solution and move on.

Students will soon have a new curriculum with the Common Core and teachers will have to get ready for the rigorous academic changes.

The most pressing issues facing Jamestown Public Schools should be what’s taught in the classroom — not what’s taught on the court.

(Editorials are the opinion of Jamestown Sun management and the newspaper’s editorial board)

Tags: opinion, editorials, education, sports