The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG -- As baseball season begins, the Waitsburg School Board was thrown a curve ball with a proposal that "came out of left field" according to Board Chairman Ross Hamann.

Prescott School Super­intendent Brett Cox -- on behalf of the Prescott School Board - recently submitted a proposal requesting sev­eral changes to the current athletic combine agreement between Waitsburg and Prescott. District 9 WIAA Executive Director Bob Kirk was on hand at the March 12 Waitsburg School Board meeting to answer questions as the Board discussed their response to the proposal.

The proposal letter states that "Prescott is experiencing a signifi­cant decline in student participation in athletics" and requests help from Waitsburg in reversing that trend. Cox states three proposal items he says were arrived at after "considerable discussion with the Board," review of participation data and survey results from staff and students.

The verbatim proposed changes (with MS standing for middle school and HS standing for high school) are:

Prescott would like to have MS athletic programs at their respective schools.

Prescott would like to bring HS basketball and volleyball to Prescott when there are enough athletes to support a team.

Prescott wants to remain in the WP combine, but change the funding to pay per player.

A final line in the letter states, 'Prescott would like both districts to continue offering all the High School athletic programs that the Combine currently offers, but move to a Co-operative fiscal model." Some board members saw this statement as contradictory to item #2.

The request to modify the Combine agreement was re­ceived by Waitsburg Super­intendent Carol Clarke just prior to a March 4 Combine Advisory Meeting. At that meeting Cox told the group that Prescott had been dis­cussing the issue since Oc­tober. Clarke recalled Cox mentioning in December that Prescott was gathering student data, but had not re­alized the data related to the WP Combine, at the time.

Hamann expressed frus­tration that -- on Waitsburg's end -- "things went from zero to sixty" with no warn­ing. "If there were problems we could have addressed them or even brought in an expert to offer advice," he said. "There was no op­portunity for a discussion of alternatives."

Hamann said they were told that a survey of students showed that more Prescott students would participate in sports if they were not part of a Combine. When he asked why, he was report­edly told, "We don't want to get into that."

A WP athlete and Prescott student con­firmed the written survey and said they know of classmates that "think they would be judged or wouldn't fit in" if they played with Waitsburg.

Board Member

Greg Zuger comment­ed that Waitsburg's sports participation has also declined in recent years. "That is very much a trend across the entire District," said WIAA Director Kirk. "Sports are just not as im­portant as they used to be."

Since the 2014-15 school year is a WIAA classifica­tion year -- and those clas­sifications hold for two years -- the potential changes leave Waitsburg concerned about scheduling and clas­sification should Prescott choose to separate from the Combine for volleyball and basketball as stated in pro­posal item #2. WIAA Direc­tor Kirk said that changing from a 2B classification to a 1B classification "would be difficult" but he didn't see a problem with "opting up" to remain a 2B school, should the Combine dissolve.

Wooderchak explained that fall football and volley­ball schedules are already set for 2B District 9 schools and that the teams are expected to play those schedules. "Waitsburg will make that commitment regardless of what Prescott decides," she said.

Wooderchak explained that if Prescott decided to split and form their own volleyball team, they would not be allowed into the 1B schedule but would play as an "independent" team and would build their own schedule. The District 9 athletic directors would then determine how many games they must win before being allowed into the tourna­ments. The District 9 athletic directors have requested that Prescott provide them with information on their deci­sion by April 1, 2014.

Current middle school numbers show Waitsburg with 11 track athletes, 13 softball players and eight baseball players and Prescott with one track athlete, four softball players and six baseball players. If middle school spring sports participation remains consistent in 2015 - and the proposed dissolution of the middle school combine takes effect -- Waitsburg would be unable to field a baseball team and Prescott would be short athletes to compete in all three spring sports.

In regard to the finance change proposed in item #3, several board members commented that Prescott had repeatedly declined the option to move to a pro- rated fiscal model in years past. "I recall a conversation with former Superintendent Bill Jordan who said, 'We want to pay half so that we have an equal say'," said Clarke.

Waitsburg and Prescott have historically played to­gether in some sports while competing in others, but the Board expressed no interest in returning to that model. "I remember when Prescott came to us six years ago because they could no lon­ger field teams. The only way we felt we could get behind it was if it was all-or- nothing. That was the one condition we made - that we were all-in and it wasn't piece meal like it had been in the past. Prescott agreed and the community got behind us." said Hamann. "Now here we are, again."

Board members agreed that team relationships were important and students shouldn't have to be team­mates in some sports and competitors in others. Some Board members questioned whether the Prescott parents and community had been surveyed and wondered where they stood.

The Board approved the following response which was submitted to Prescott on March 14:

In consideration of the impact of WIAA, Dis­trict IX and its athletes, coaches and communi­ties, the Waitsburg School Board of Directors respect­fully requests the Prescott School Board of Direc­tors agree to continue with Waitsburg under the current Waitsburg Prescott (WP) Athletic Combine Agree­ment through the 2014- 2015 and 2015-2016 school years. And if so decided, that the Prescott School District identify their intent to leave the WP Athletic Combine by the next clas­sification period by Decem­ber

2015.

The Times contacted Superintendent Cox (prior to his receiving Waitsburg's response) and gave him the opportunity to address sev­eral of the concerns of the Waitsburg Board. Rather than address specifics, Cox said, "We look forward to Waitsburg's response to our proposal and their contin­ued cooperation and sup­port in offering quality ath­letic programs to students from both districts."

The Prescott School Dis­trict called a special meet­ing of the School Board for Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. to address Waitsburg's re­sponse to their initial letter.

A non-public WP Com­bine Advisory meeting is scheduled for March 24 in Waitsburg. The next Prescott School Board meeting, which is open to the public, will be held March 27 at 7 p.m.