Sports become free at middle school

By Erik Buchinger

The Clintonville School Board voted unanimously to reduce athletic fees beginning in the 2019-20 school year.

At the April 22 board meeting, Superintendent David Dyb recommended approving the reduced costs prior to the parent co-curricular meeting for fall sports, which will take place on Wednesday, May 8.

“Talking at the admin level, this will eventually become an administrative guideline, but we want to get this out now because of fall sports with that meeting coming up,” Dyb said.

The school district’s athletic director, Shaun Liesch, sent out a survey to surrounding schools and conference schools regarding their athletic fees.

“We were by far the highest out of everyone,” Liesch said.

Liesch said some surrounding school districts charged $60 for the year or $25 per sport. Clintonville’s athletic fees were $45 per sport.

“I think to get our fees more in line with the conference school and surrounding schools is a lot better for our students,” Liesch said. “I think it will have a great impact on participation numbers especially at the middle school.”

The middle school and high school had the same cost of $45 per sport despite the middle school playing half the season length of high school in the same sport.

With the proposed changes at the high school level, athletic participation fees per sport will drop from $45 per sport to $20 per sport.

Clintonville High School Rec Center passes for athletes will cost $25 and remain at $45 for non-athletes.

“I like this,” School Board President Ben Huber said. “I like the fact that the rec center pass is still available at a reduced cost.”
Dyb said the cost for the rec center use for students is reasonable.

“We thought that was important for families who do not have the family rec center pass,” Dyb said. “The students still have the opportunity to use the facilities even if they don’t have a family pass, and it is a very reasonable rate.”

In the middle school, athletic participation per sport will drop from $45 to no cost.

“Dropping that from $45 to free in the proposal I think would definitely impact our middle school numbers especially since they’re struggling to begin with,” Liesch said.

A CHS Rec Center pass will remain at $45 for middle school students.

The previous policy had a cap at $180 per family per year. With the drop in fees, the cap was eliminated.

A family would have nine sports seasons in one year at the high school to reach the $180 cap.

“In the rare case that’s going to happen, we would take that under consideration for that one family,” Business Manager Holly Burr said. “With the reduced cost, we just thought it really wasn’t that necessary.”

Board members in attendance unanimously approved the proposal. Kris Strauman and Jim Schultz were absent.