Heights sets forum to discuss adding baseball, softball

A proposal to add high school baseball and softball at Jackson Heights High School remains on the USD 335 Board of Education’s table, even though board members said recently that as much as they would like to add the sports, it’s not financially feasible for the district at this time — particularly when the board is looking at adding or reinstating teaching positions. 

“I’m in favor of it. My kids would love it. But I couldn’t vote for it in good conscience at this time,” Board President Dr. David Allen said during the board’s Oct. 10 meeting of adding baseball and softball.

Still, board members indicated that even though they needed to prioritize improvements to the classroom over additions to sports opportunities in the district, they still wanted to get public input on the baseball and softball proposal. The board agreed to hold a public forum at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20, at the JHHS library for discussion of the proposal.

Previously, the board met with district patrons Russell Bacon and Topher Dohl in August to discuss a proposal to add baseball and softball at JHHS, with first-year costs estimated at $14,651.08 and $14,081.48, respectively, based on a 25-person roster for each team. After that, yearly program maintenance costs were estimated at $9,979 and $9,479, respectively.

Games would be played at the Netawaka Athletic Club starting in the spring of 2018 if the programs were added, it was estimated. It was also reported at the time that Jackson Heights is currently one of three schools in the Northeast Kansas League that does not offer baseball or softball programs, Horton and Jefferson County North being the other two.

At the Oct. 10 meeting, school officials made it clear that they were united in their enthusiasm for expanding the number of sports available to JHHS students, but they were also united in disappointment that more funding is not available for baseball and softball programs.

“I’d love to give our kids the opportunity,” District Superintendent and Elementary Principal Adrianne Walsh said about the baseball and softball proposal. “It’s not an easy, simple thing to wave our board and administration wand and say, ‘Poof! We have softball and baseball,’ because there’s just so much that goes with it.”

Still, Allen said, district patrons interested in adding the two sports should have a say in the matter, and the board should listen to them. However, board member Doug Amon questioned whether holding a forum to allow Heights patrons to voice their support for the two sports programs would affect the way the board viewed the matter in the near future.

“What’s to gain from a public forum if we’re just kicking the can down the road?” Amon asked. “I don’t see us changing our minds in a month.”

The vote to allow Thursday’s public forum to go on was split, with Allen, Kelly Kennedy, Ed Rostetter and Melinda Wareham voting in favor while Amon and Neal Keeler voted in opposition. Board member Konrad Coe abstained from the vote, citing that he would be absent from Thursday’s meeting as his reason for abstention.

The board was, however, united in voting for an updated list of district goals and priorities for the 2016-17 school year, which included input from district students and staff. As in previous years, the list was broken down into six categories — curriculum and instruction, personnel, school/community relations, student activities, operations and capital outlay — with long-range goals and short-range priorities listed for each.

Replacing a Family and Consumer Sciences (FACS) teacher remained high on the list of short-range priorities for personnel, along with reinstating a middle-and-high-school English position. Walsh said she had contacted the Kansas State Department of Education and was told that while the former position was “not a hard job to fill, but close,” the latter is “a hard-to-fill position.”

A short-range priority in curriculum and instruction, Walsh noted, involves implementing career interest surveys and an “individual plan of study” for eighth-graders who may be just starting to decide on a post-high school career. She noted that students in the district continue to take “classes that are going to help them more in the future with their post-secondary paths.”

In addition to those classes, Walsh said students should also have the opportunity to participate in “mock interviews” — a short-range priority under student activities — such as those they will have later in life when applying for jobs. Kennedy agreed, adding that he would like to see students participate in more “job shadowing” and career exploration activities.

“Let’s let the kids figure out what they want to do,” Kennedy said.