It is with deep frustration and sad hearts that we write to clarify the current situation with the Northshore School District (NSD) Elementary Sports Program.

We have served on the Sports Committee through the Northshore PTA Council over the last two years, dedicating countless hours and energy to ensure the survival of the Elementary Sports Program. We never indicated that we were “moving on” from the program and leaving it, but rather we wanted the district to consider reinstating it because we felt that is where it should be. Yet, it appears that unexpectedly NSD has chosen to farm out our program to the YMCA.

Perhaps the YMCA has offered a good plan, but we would like NSD to allow us to review the YMCA plan and participate in proper and respectful discourse — something they have not afforded us to date. We ask that (they) hear our concerns and act accordingly.

History: Despite plenty of documented parent opposition, including a petition with over 1,200 parent signatures, and in the face of a national obesity epidemic, NSD chose to eliminate the elementary sports program two years ago. Our response as concerned parent volunteers was to form a Sports Committee through the PTA with the purpose of preserving the Cross Country and Track & Field program. We negotiated a proposal with NSD to retain the program by increasing participation fees to $25/student, and we agreed to raise any required supplemental funds needed to cover shortfalls.

For two years we worked hard to garner parent and community financial support. Our big break came with the generous donation of funds from The Woodinville Country Slough Run, and this October will mark the third year that we will receive the proceeds from this race. These funds will most likely carry us through two more years of operation. We marveled at the success of the program with over 1,800 students participating. All was running smoothly until we requested that the district consider reinstating the program in March 2006.

We felt that surely those with NSD institutional power would recognize how successful our program was and its relative importance among other budgeting concerns. We didn’t feel that we should continue spending time away from our families raising funds and other miscellaneous administrative/communication duties for a program that the district should support centrally to reduce inefficiencies. The Woodinville Country Slough Run had carried the program through two years and we now knew that for the district to take it back would cost approximately $3,500 a year. The district currently receives 10 percent of each dollar for processing the funds collected from the families.

Our group provides the extra funding to cover scholarships and shortfalls for schools who have not met the break-even participation number. Therefore, for NSD to take this program back would translate into them finding approximately $3,500 in their over $100 million budget, which we felt was a reasonable request based on the popularity of this program and the number of students it serves.

Communication Issues: After several attempts to bring our request to district officials we failed to get any response for three months, except for one e-mail from Dick Anastasi stating they were “looking at it.”

We planned to find new volunteers if the district was unwilling to take back the program for $3,500/annually. After hearing nothing back from the district, we did recruit a parent volunteer who was willing to take on some of this responsibility and Karen made the decision to continue on for two more years to help with the transition to a new parent group. That person is Kris Bush who is officially on our committee. All of this was accomplished and made public at the Northshore PTA Council General meeting and Board meeting in late May 2006. District officials Cathy Swanson and John Bond were present at this meeting, and therefore there should be no confusion about our commitment to the program nor our intent to continue.

Fast forward to June 15, 2006, when a request for the district to meet with the Sports Committee was initiated by Dick Anastasi. Neither Karen nor Kris (the new core of the committee) was able to attend, so we asked to have the meeting rescheduled. The district responded that information would be passed along and there was not a specific agenda on the district’s part. In the end, our outgoing committee member Kelly attended the meeting and was told about the YMCA proposal, at which time she told administrators she would pass along the information to the new committee members and original leader, Karen Quarre. She was given no documentation of the proposal. Later that afternoon an e-mail went out to all elementary school principals stating that the Parent Group was moving on and the plan is to start with the YMCA in the spring of 2007.

In effect, NSD has pretty much handed our program over to the YMCA. We can only surmise that the district was negotiating a deal with the YMCA for several weeks without including us or the coaches or the parent volunteers — nobody. Yes, we feel burned, but worse, we are left wondering who will really profit from this change?

The YMCA program will not be able to pay our coaches at the same rate, per the e-mail sent to all Northshore principals (and not to any of our committee members) “current coaches would be offered positions by the YMCA. They state their wage rates are comparable to what we currently pay, excluding the grandfathered rates.” Grandfathered rates are extended to those coaches who have been with the district the longest.

As for scholarships, this is outside YMCA subsidy policy, and it’s doubtful the Slough Run will continue subsidizing the program if it’s not parent run.

Plus, participation fees will rise under the YMCA proposal by at least $10 a child. What organization will benefit from excess fees and why make this change when we did not even ask for it in the first place?

In sum, the Sports Committee was blindsided and taken advantage of by the one e-mail requesting consideration to reinstate the program. Currently track meets are run by a group of dedicated parent volunteers who have a personal investment in the success of the program. The YMCA proposal should carefully consider their projections for any volunteer line items.

We believe the district owes this dedicated group of parents and a large number of other volunteers not only an apology for being completely left out of the decision to farm out the program, but also for lack of consideration for the work in establishing funding/volunteers to keep this extremely popular program alive.

Just so the District can hear once again: We are a committee, We have the funding and We don’t plan to move on unless the principals, parents and coaches decide they prefer contracting with the YMCA. We like it just the way it is.

If you have an opinion on this issue, please contact Cathy Swanson c.swanson@verizon.org and Dick Anastasi d.anastasi@nsd.org. Be sure to include me on the cc kmq@isomedia.com.

The parent-led funding group was not included in any discussions to date so I’m only guessing that parents will be finding out that they are the proud new owners of a program run by the YMCA in the spring of 2007.