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Saturday, February 23, 2008
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Groups working together to save Brainerd activities
Sports Editor Residents in the Brainerd School District may have taken it for granted that the athletics or activities their children are passionate about would always be part of the curriculum.
Cut football? Cut soccer? Cut drama club? Cut debate team?
Unfathomable.
A failed referendum Nov. 6, 2007, changed which athletics and activities, at the high school and middle school levels, might be offered in the future.
A total of $860,000 in reductions in athletics and activities, at the high school and middle school levels, must be made in April to balance the 2008-09 budget.
Three community groups decided to take action to try and maintain the district's current athletic and activity programs.
- Warrior Way Inc., a non-profit corporation, formed to help qualifying students fund higher participation fees. WWI will need to raise two years' worth of financial support by April 1 for the new funding model to work. The group anticipates having to raise $90,000 to $110,000 a year to cover participation scholarships. To date, WWI has raised more than $50,000.
- The Brainerd Lakes Area Support Team was formed about 18 months ago, primarily to provide supplemental support for lakes area sports and activities. It has since joined WWI in trying to save all middle and high school athletics and activities.
- Meanwhile, the Brainerd Sports Boosters Club will continue its mission of supporting all Brainerd area athletics.
P.J Smith, Don Ryan and Kristi Sachs, all of WWI, Brian Skogen, president of the boosters club and a WWI board member, and Vince Kline and Scott Stall, both of BLAST, on Thursday discussed what their groups are doing.
Q: What are WWI's roles?
P.J. Smith: Our first goal was to try to determine if there is a way to keep all of these wonderful programs viable and financially sustainable. In doing this we analyzed several options, including organizing by sport and activity to raise the necessary funds to cover the cost of each program, or alternatively, the option of collectively fundraising enough money to save all high school and middle school programs for one year and then hope the Legislature would step in and increase public funding to the point where things could be as they have been in the past.
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Scott Stall (left) and Vince Kline are members of the Brainerd Lakes Area Support Team (BLAST).
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Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
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Relatively quickly we determined these might be options but neither of these ideas were good long-term options.
Over time a new alternative began to evolve through many discussions, and that alternative is the path we've chosen, to increase activity/participation fees to cover a large portion of the $860,000 in cuts to public funding.
The one problem with this option is ensuring the increased participation fees do not prohibit kids from being able to participate. This is important because we want everyone who wants to participate to be able to. Also, the new funding model is dependent on maintaining participation levels so our mission has now become forming a foundation that will raise money to provide financial aid to kids who need help paying the increased activity fees.
Q. How is fundraising going in a slow economy?
P.J. Smith: We believe we are doing an effective job. The first part of the fundraising process is the educational part: Who are we? What are we trying to accomplish? And what is our plan?
I think we are beginning to move through that part of the process, while acknowledging that this will be a continual ongoing process. So now we are squarely in the middle of the fundraising part of our mission.
Those with more experience in these types of things continually remind me the money will probably not come in until the very end. That is not comfortable for many of us but it certainly tends to keep us motivated.
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P.J. Smith is a member of the Warrior Way Inc. committee.
» Purchase reprints of this photo.
Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
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Right now fund-raising is picking up momentum. This week has been a good week. We've had a very strong response from the community as far as willingness to participate and to make donations to WWI. Many people are still in the process of thinking through what that means. How much money can they give? Should this be a one-year or a multiyear commitment?
Q. Are you optimistic that WWI will reach its goals?
P.J. Smith: My good friend (Don Ryan) reminds me each day that failure is not an option. So, yes, we remain very optimistic but I think it's fair to say we realize it's going to take a lot of sustained effort to get there.
Don Ryan: In order to provide our kids today with the same opportunities I had when I graduated in 1979, or my two stepsons had when they graduated in the early 2000s, we need to figure out how to put this model in place. We need the community to step up and put the money in the bank. There's really no other way to do it.
The only way to do that is direct solicitation, through some mailings or e-mail contacts. If someone has a better way to do it we're all ears.
Primarily, what we need is people to maybe grow the way we've grown. The middle of December we started as basically two people, P.J. and Kristi, talking to (activities director) Todd Selk on the same day. They had never met one another before.
We're a non-profit corporation now. Our 501(c)3 paperwork has been submitted. We believe we will qualify and get that status to the point we won't need a fiscal host anymore. We're thankful to Community Action for assisting us while we need that, which is right now, to go forward.
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Don Ryan (left), Kristi Sachs and Brian Skogen discussed the status of the Warrior Way Inc., a foundation to help students pay their participation fee. Skogen is also president of the Brainerd Sports Boosters Club.
» Purchase reprints of this photo.
Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
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If we're successful, and if the participation levels stay up, hopefully there won't be reductions in activities and athletics. This gives us, in essence, one to two years for all of us to continue working together to figure out the more long-term sustainability piece, which might be able to create a mechanism, if we are successful enough, to get $3 million to $5 million in the bank, which is the number I've been using. If you don't shoot big you aren't going to get there.
One of the discussions WWI and BLAST had early on was how can we keep the fees as low as possible? If we can get that $3 million to $5 million in the bank maybe the student pays the first $100, maybe WWI can pick up the next $200. If there's more than a $300 fee that student can apply, or not apply, for aid at that point. That would be an awesome place to be, wouldn't it? Who can argue that wouldn't be an awesome place to be?
All of us sitting here today are parents, or have some connection to the system. Some of our children are older. I have two stepsons that have graduated and I have a fifth-grader, so I'm on both ends of the spectrum. We're all involved in the community. We can't fund public education as parents. That's the Legislature's job, that's the state's job.
People ask why don't we focus on education? We are focused on education. If we can take this piece off the (district's) plate, if we can come up with alternative funding mechanisms for our extracurricular activities and our athletics, the school can focus on the academic piece. The possibility is there. Someday there might not even be the remaining funding for extracurriculars. This is the potential model that may address that in the future
I think the community has started to see this. Initially, there were a lot of questions about why isn't the boosters club doing this? Why isn't BLAST doing this? What's the difference between BLAST and WWI? Why aren't they working together?
I think we've worked through that. Initially, we had three different groups with the same idea but three different ways to get there. I think it's awesome we're all sitting down here, talking about it and we can show our unity in this process. I commend everyone who wants to step up and say, 'Here I am. I'm willing to get involved.'
We all know it's not without some personal risk because people will disagree with what you do when you stand up, whether you're a sports editor and the story didn't say what someone wanted it to say, or an elected official.
If someone wants to get mad at me for standing up and saying, 'Hey, I want to be involved in the community and give my daughter all the opportunities possible,' go for it. Get mad. I don't care.
Q. Where will the money go?
Brian Skogen: I want to stress that WWI is a foundation to help kids pay their participation fee. That's how I answer what WWI is. That's how simple it is.
(The money) goes to a foundation. It does not go to the school district. It does not go to an individual. A board will meet, it will look at what does this person qualify for and that's where the money goes, to that individual.
Then it goes to the school district to help pay for equipment, transportation, coaches, jerseys, all of those things.
Another point is how can people help us? They can help us, whether they are supporters of BLAST, or the boosters. They can help us by understanding the process, understanding how to apply, then helping us by sponsoring an athlete or a participant, giving back if you will, or being concerned if your kids are involved.
That's how people can help us, by donating and by being supportive, at upcoming events, by helping to work those events, and getting this off the ground.
Q. What is the Sports Booster Club's position?
Brian Skogen: We're absolutely 100 percent behind this effort. Simply, our mission is to support Brainerd area athletics. That encompasses everything. We don't discriminate, from (Brainerd Athletic Association) football and basketball, Brainerd boxing, BMX bike racing, pond hockey, bowling ... We just approved money for some bikes for kids who are interested in being in bike racing. For the boxing program, we bought the ring and have provided them equipment, like their gloves. We do all of those things, let alone the varsity and middle school things, helmets, jerseys, baskets, goals, scoreboards.
From the boosters' (club) perspective it would be a distinct step backward to not have that available. We're having a program March 6 at our noon meeting. We're asking WWI to make a presentation. We've been answering questions already. We've used our e-mail list to get the word out. We got our electronic brochure out for WWI so people understand what the concept is.
So we're very supportive of it. We do not want it to fail. It just can't fail.
Q. What's the booster club's role?
Brian Skogen: We want WWI to be successful so our mission doesn't change because we think there will be as much, or more, of a need for sports boosters to help everything continue. WWI is going to help keep the participants there, maybe even grow the participants in all those activities. The need for the boosters, the need for BLAST, does not go away. In fact, it might grow because the funding might go away from the district, so they might not have the funds to buy basketballs and pucks. That's where BLAST, that's where the boosters can continue to go.
One of our two major functions are our social functions on Thursdays. We want that to continue. If we don't have all the varsity level sports going we won't need to meet every Thursday, shake each other's hand, have lunch and a cup of coffee. It just will not quite be as fun as being introduced to athletes and coaches and athletes of the week. There won't be as many of those to go around if there's just 12 sports.
Q. What is BLAST's objective?
Vince Kline: Our original mission statement was to provide supplemental support for lakes area sports and activities. Our mission has changed since the referendum failed.
Basically, our mission was to try and save everything, like WWI is doing. Since they stepped in, the school board is going with that model so right now our main focus is to try and help them reach that $220,000 goal and save all (activities and athletics).
After that we want to try and find some way to help keep fees down. Maybe we can do some fundraising that will go into a general pool so fee levels can maybe go to a lower cost, and still provide support for other activities.
Q. Are BLAST and WWI working together now?
Vince Kline: Yes, definitely, it's the same goal. We have letters ready to go. We have (WWI) in the letter. We were focused on businesses and some people they focused on so we don't want to hit the same people. (WWI) probably has better resources to approach those people than we do, so we'll try to find a way to work in conjunction with them instead of competing with the same type of fundraisers they're doing.
We still plan on doing tournaments and getting kids involved in some of our fundraisers.
Scott Stall: We formed about a year and half ago. That's when we first heard that maybe middle school activities and athletics were going to be significantly cut, maybe even dropped altogether.
At that time most of our kids were in middle school. Vince and I each have one at the high school now, but it was like what can we do to hopefully not let that happen? At that time we were under the impression that high school sports were fine.
So we formed the group to support all area athletics but we wanted to do some fundraisers where we would allow groups to come in and give them a portion of the money that was fundraised back to that group. The rest we would put into a fund so we could help support middle school (athletics and activities). As Vince said, now that the referendum has failed we kind of went the other direction.
We did meet with the school district about a year ago about this time. We wanted to let them know what our focus was then. Now, like Vince said, our focus has changed to what we can do for the high school level as well.
But, we still feel it's important that we want to save everything. We want to make sure that we have middle school sports to mirror varsity sports, and to make sure our kids have an opportunity to participate. We feel that sports participation helps them academically, plus it gives them something to do instead of wondering the streets. Whether people realize it or not, it's an economic impact on our community too.
Q. Any final thoughts?
Kristi Sachs: I want to clarify that WWI is not only about athletics. All of these activities that are going to get cut, that's a big part of high school. On the list is prom, yearbook, things that people take for granted. Maybe, individually, they might have survived but they are cut as part of this.
WWI is there for the debate, for the drama kids as well as the athletes. We want to make sure whatever you're involved in, what you're passionate about, be it music, athletics, whatever it is, we want those kids to be assured their passions are recognized and we're trying to help them also.
MIKE BIALKA may be reached at mike.bialka@brainerddispatch.com or at 855-5861.
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