Friday, February 07, 2014

The PTO at Sci-Tech, 6-12, have taken notice of the sports cuts and offer suggestions

See the PTO Newsletter:

It says, in part, SAVE OUR SPORTS:

Save our sports teams!

posted 12 hours ago by Lorrie Cranor   [ updated 12 hours ago ]
The proposed budget for the 2014-2015 school year includes eliminating golf, swimming, and tennis teams for the Pittsburgh Public Schools. 

Here is a link to a good PPG article summarizing the cuts, the sports cuts are toward the end:
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2013/12/04/Pittsburgh-Public-Schools-plan-includes-central-office-cuts-school-closings/stories/201312040136

Here is the link to Linda Lane's state of the district address that includes these proposed cuts:
http://www.pps.k12.pa.us/wholechild

Every month there is a public hearing at the school board, during which the public can speak about any topic they wish (for 3 mins each). The next meeting is Monday evening Feb 24 at 6PM at the District Office on Bellefield Ave.  We encourage parents and students to speak about how they feel about the proposed elimination of swimming as a PPS sport. If anyone wishes to speak, he/she should call (412) 622-3868 beginning Mon Feb 17 to be added to the list of speakers.  The procedures are described at:
http://www.pps.k12.pa.us/Page/4043

The other thing that people can do is to email Dr. Lane and the school board directly (email addresses below) voicing their opinions. They have to do more than complain though-- focus on points like these:

--Reasons sports in general (and these in particular) are good for students
--how eliminating these sports will detract from their goal of making PPS a "district of choice"
--point out that tennis and golf are inexpensive sports and swimming, which is more costly, can be saved by enacting some of Mr. Rauterkus' ideas (see below). 

School Board email address: boardoffice@pghboe.net
Dr. Lane's email address: llane1@pghboe.net

Parents and students expressing their strong opposition and explaining why these cuts hurt students is the best was to save these sports for SciTech students. 

The USO swim coach, Mark Rauterkus, has written on his blog and published a piece in the Obama Eagle (student paper), about why cutting these sports hurts both students and PPS overall. He has some cost-effective suggestions for the district that would allow them to keep (and in some cases improve) some sports within PPS.
http://rauterkus.blogspot.com/




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