Toledo Public Schools sports cuts are called a 'death sentence'

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A plan to cut athletics in Toledo Public Schools would be a "death sentence" for the schools and a gateway for students to find trouble, according to TPS athletic directors and administrators reached by The Blade.

Top TPS officials ordered faculty and staff around noon yesterday not to comment on a proposal to eliminate athletics as one of many steps to solve the district's $30 million budget deficit.

But school and district administrators reached before that edict went out said the proposal to save $3.54 million by halting all sports at TPS would have dire consequences.

Mainly, thousands of students would transfer to other schools that have sports, coaches and teachers would be out of jobs, and the students who did not transfer would suffer academically and may be susceptible to temptations on the streets.

"If they follow through and cut athletics it's a death sentence to the schools," Start High School athletic director Dan Sanders said yesterday morning.

Mr. Sanders was just one of many administrators who predicted a mass exodus of students if indeed all sports were dropped.

They foresee students transferring to Whitmer or Clay, Perrysburg or Maumee, Central Catholic or St. John's - anywhere to stay on the football field or basketball court.

"Athletics is a big part of the education," said Rogers High School athletic director Randy Bartz, who has spent 34 years as a teacher, coach, and now an administrator. "All the people who go through athletic programs learn things like time management and teamwork. Some people say you learn as much from athletics as you do in school.

"Some kids will be financially able to move, but some kids will just be stuck, and that'll be a shame for them having to go through school with no athletic activity whatsoever," Mr. Bartz said.

Mr. Sanders added: "They're just not going to do anything. They will find other avenues to funnel their energies, and unfortunately it might not be on good things."

Libbey athletic director John Snyder is facing the possibility of losing more than just his athletics program. Another budget-cutting proposal is to close Libbey entirely.

"To me, Libbey is more than 1250 Western Avenue," said Mr. Snyder, a 1998 Libbey graduate. "Regardless of wherever I might go teach, or wherever I go, this school's in my blood, and I'm not the only one.

"This is not a new rumor. We've dealt with this for many years now. It's frustrating and it's upsetting. But, at the end of the day, we have a lot of students and athletes, and we don't have time to cry to them. If they're being tough, we've got to be tough."

Two junior starters on Waite's City League championship girls basketball team are undecided what they would do should TPS be forced to eliminate sports.

"Man, I would be miserable," guard Brooke Hunt said, "because basketball is a big part of my life. I think I would focus more on my academics, but it would really hurt me if they did that. I don't know what I'd do [as far as transferring]. It depends on the situation."

Her teammate, forward Shanice McNeal, is similarly uncertain.

"I know I'll stay in school and work on getting my grades up, and try to get a scholarship off of academics," Miss McNeal said. "I don't know if I'd go to another school. I'd probably just stay at Waite. But I really don't know what I'd do. I could go to another school to get my fourth year of basketball."

Other student-athletes spoke out at last night's girls basketball game between Start and Southview at Clay High School.

Start freshman Jessica Williams, a volleyball player, said her classmates were all talking about the proposal yesterday.

"I still want to play sports so that I can try to get a scholarship," Miss Williams said. "I want to play volleyball in college."

Clay junior Danielle Holmes, who plays soccer and softball, said she and her friends were shocked by the news.

Clay is in Oregon and its sports would not be canceled because they are not part of Toledo Public Schools. But Clay is in the City League and would lose most of its opponents who are in TPS schools.

"Sports give us competition," Miss Holmes said. "There are so many good teams in the league."

"I would hope Clay would find a different league to play in," Miss Holmes said.

Difficult times are nothing new to TPS, which experienced similar financial problems in 1977-78, a school year that included both a levy failure in the fall and a teacher's strike in the spring.

It was worse in 1990-91, when a deficit ultimately led to the closure of two high schools - DeVilbiss and Macomber-Whitney - the following school year.

The proposed cuts were released to the school board Wednesday night at a special meeting.

If voters reject the cash-strapped district's request for a 0.75 percent tax on earned income on the May 4 ballot, the district will need to make $30 million in cuts.

If the levy passes, TPS will still need to trim $17.5 million from its budget. A public meeting is set for 5:30 p.m. March 17 at Start to get input from the community, and the board will convene again March 23 to decide which cuts can be avoided if the levy passes.

"We've been here before," said longtime Toledo City Athletic League commissioner Ed Scrutchins, who is employed by the school system. "There's nothing you can do about it but try and pass the levy. There's so many other things involved. When you're talking about that type of deficit, if we pass a levy, we may have [athletic] programs, but other programs are still going to be cut. It's up to the voters, obviously."

While it will be weeks or months before the fates of Libbey High and TPS sports are decided, Mr. Bartz is already struggling to imagine what his weekends will be like next school year.

"I can't imagine coming up on a Friday night and not going to a football or basketball game or to a track meet," he said. "That's just part of being in school."

Contact Steve Junga at:

sjunga@theblade.com

or 419-724-6461.