Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools announced Thursday it has enough money to keep some middle school sports alive next school year, but others, such as soccer and baseball, will end unless private donors offer long-term support. The news brought cheers from those who believe sports help adolescents succeed in school and life, but skepticism about the timing. The demise of middle school sports was among a list of drastic 2011-12 budget cuts Superintendent Peter Gorman announced in January, along with big reductions in prekindergarten and the possible layoff of 600 teachers and 900 other employees. On Thursday, interim Athletic Director Sue Doran said the pay-to-play system CMS launched in 2010-11 ended with a surplus that will be used to save a scaled-back roster of middle school sports: football, basketball, track, volleyball and cheerleading. Last year, middle school sports served 6,200 students and cost $1.2 million, Doran said. Next school year, CMS expects to have about 4,300 middle school athletes at an $833,000 cost. Doran said even a reduced program is something to celebrate. "It helps to mold young people into solid, respectable young adults," she said. "For 4,360 of our middle school parents, they're going to be extremely happy." The threat of losing middle school sports brought an outpouring of concern and emotion - but in the end, no concrete aid. "No one has stepped forward with any money at all," Doran said. Tripp Roakes, publisher of the South Charlotte Sports Report and founder of the Save Middle School Sports foundation, said he'll keep trying to rally corporate support, but also thinks CMS should charge higher participation fees to sustain a full program. He said the fact that CMS never officially supported his effort hampered the quest to raise money - but he's glad officials found a way to keep some sports alive. "Today is a day that I am proud to see arrive," he said. "There were hundreds of hours placed into this grassroots effort and it's always exciting to see hard work pay off for our children." School board member Rhonda Lennon, who helped Roakes organize parent meetings and the foundation, agreed that saving some sports is a victory: "If you let the program die, it's never coming back." But some who accused Gorman of proposing draconian cuts to inflame public sympathy saw this as another bit of evidence. On June 7, Mecklenburg County commissioners voted to give CMS $26 million more than it got this year, a bigger bump than Gorman had asked for. In the days immediately following that, CMS officials announced that most of the layoffs and the pre-K cuts had been averted, partly because of the county increase and partly because state cuts weren't as bad as anticipated. "Ultimately, CMS will say anything to convince the (Democrats) to give them more money," Republican commissioner Bill James said Thursday. "In this case they sold the county (and city) a tall tale and the (Democrats) bought the 'for the children' line hook, line and sinker." Doran said CMS wasn't sure it would have a pay-to-play surplus until the school year ended. In 2010-11, CMS started charging participation fees of $50 per middle school sport and $100 per high school sport, with exemptions for low-income students. The district also tacked an additional dollar onto the price for high school admission tickets. CMS also got $322,000 in one-time donations during the past year, some of which is rolling over for the coming year, Doran said. She said CMS had collected participation fees when the spring season started, but didn't have a full tally of ticket sales and expenses. "There's no way I would have been comfortable (making the decision) in March," she said. "This was year one. We moved cautiously and we moved prudently. Could we have done this two weeks earlier? Maybe." CMS officials notified principals on Thursday that they could restore athletic directors and coaches. Doran said that won't mean hiring new staff, but providing stipends for existing teachers, many of whom coached last year. The CMS memo said that in some cases, athletic jobs will be filled by "non-faculty members receiving stipends only."
CMS Finds Money To Save Some Middle School Sports
