Written by By Paul Gately
Thu Dec 03, 2009, 06:01 AM EST
BOURNE -
Bourne parents disenchanted with proposed reductions in school sports programs this winter will meet tonight (Thursday) in the Community Center at Main Street to discuss ways fundraising can be undertaken to preserve them.
The effort is not unlike that launched two decades ago when school system budgets were in peril, layoffs were imminent and sports programs were seen as expendable.
The new group called Save Bourne Sports is headed by Tom Gibson of Monument Beach, who earlier this fall led the parental charge against middle school efforts to launch new non-letter report cards for students.
The group is being established to help fund all sports, including middle school cheerleading and the Bourne High School junior varsity hockey program.
“We’re trying to explore ways to fund, sponsor and volunteer to help keep these sports programs alive,” noted Jay McMahon of Buzzards Bay in an e-mail message. “We’ve been dealt a hand, and now it’s time for action.”
The news that the school committee’s budget subcommittee had identified JV hockey as an area that could be cut swept through the town like a prairie fire over the holiday weekend.
School committee member Joe Gordon said he did not know how much money the hockey program costs, but he said that would likely be explored Wednesday night (Dec. 2) when his panel reconsiders the budget for the fiscal year under way as well as plans for fiscal 2011.
“The idea all along has been to keep cuts that need to be made away from the classroom,” Gordon said. “And to keep from letting more teachers go.”
The school system is still dealing with the aftermath of accounting problems and over-spending last year that prompted massive cuts this year as well as teachers being laid off at the start of the school year.
Save Bourne Sports, meanwhile, says BHS Athletic Director Jessica Sullivan, will be on hand Thursday night to answer questions and offer advice on ways the parent group can move forward with its efforts.
The session starts at 6:30 p.m. The school committee budget consideration starts tonight (Wednesday) at 7 p.m.
