Fairfax County high school gymnastics and indoor track could beeliminated when the 2010 budget is adopted in May as the schooldistrict copes with a $170 million shortfall. School officials saythe measure would affect about 2,600 athletes and save the county anestimated $471,000.
Schools Superintendent Jack D. Dale unveiled three budgetproposals at a Fairfax County Board of Supervisors meeting lastweek. Each proposal called for gymnastics to be cut; indoor trackwould be nixed in the most severe proposal, which also included cutsof $219 million and the elimination of 1,500 county schoolspositions.
'There are going to be cuts,' said Fairfax County Director ofStudent Activities Bill Curran, noting most of the cuts are notrelated to athletics. 'We're looking at taking the impacts that wecan survive and maintaining as many of our programs as we can.'
Such a move, made in a county that has been ranked among thenation's wealthiest and with 24 of its 25 schools appearing onNewsweek's 2008 list of America's top public high schools, is aconsequence of the nation's economic crisis. Fairfax, a county witha median household income of more than $100,000, has experienced asteep decline in housing prices and anticipated property taxrevenue, according to Curran.
'It simply isn't realistic to think we can operate with vastbudget cuts and not talk about the athletics. It's all got to gotogether,' Curran said.
Fairfax, however, appears to be the only county in the Washingtonarea willing to cut sports. School athletic officials in Arlington,Loudoun, Prince William, Spotsylvania, Montgomery, Prince George's,Howard, Anne Arundel, Charles, St. Mary's and Calvert counties, plusAlexandria and the District, say they do not plan to eliminate anyhigh school sports.
All of those jurisdictions except Loudoun offer indoor track; inMaryland, only Montgomery and Anne Arundel offer gymnastics.
Curran said Fairfax targeted gymnastics and indoor track for cutsbecause there were other avenues for those athletes to compete.'Gymnastics has it at the private level [club gymnastics], and trackreally had it in the spring,' Curran said. 'There are still someopportunities to run in the spring and for distance runners to docross-country in the fall.' According to the FCPS schools' budget-cutting proposal, cutting track would save $250,000.
'I don't know why track would be targeted. Think about it -- it's so simple. For a poor kid, all you need is a pair of shoes anda good coach,' said Herndon's Peter Sherry, who coaches the school'sindoor, outdoor and cross-country teams.
Gymnastics cuts would affect approximately 125 female athletesand save the county an additional $221,000 through the eliminationof 25 head coaching supplements, 25 assistant coach supplements,officials fees and transportation. In Fairfax County, a headgymnastics coach is paid a $4,000 stipend.
'We've seen a steady decline in participation over the past sevenor eight years,' Curran said of gymnastics. 'It's been on the tablefor the past few years.'
Curran said that 14 of 25 Fairfax schools fielded gymnasticsteams last winter. In 2002, Fairfax County had 21 active teams andhad more than 200 girls participating.
'Because [gymnastics] is not in every school, not everyonesupports it,' said W.T. Woodson Coach Mike Cooper, whose teams havewon more than two dozen local and state boys' and girls' titles inhis 25-year career. 'Because some schools don't have a team, it'seasy to say, 'Yes, let's cut it.' The schools that have it andsupport the program see that it's beneficial.'
About 2,500 students participate in indoor track, which has longserved as a catch-all sport for athletes looking for a way to trainduring the offseason.
'All of the sudden you are sending 2,500 kids out into traffic,out into the streets with nothing to do,' Sherry said.
Since the boys' indoor track and field state meet became anofficial VHSL championship event in 1950, Northern Region teams havewon 18 state titles. The girls' teams have combined for 14 of 27titles since the girls' meet became official in 1982. In February,the Fairfax County Park Authority entertained several proposals thatcalled for a 250,000-square-foot indoor track facility at LaurelHill Park, the site of the former Lorton Penitentiary. 'We had a lotof discussion, but ultimately, with no funding, there was no plan,'Curran said.
Fairfax County schools must travel to meets all over the EastCoast, and run a majority of their indoor meets at the PrinceGeorge's Sports & Learning Complex, an 80-acre facility adjacent toFedEx Field in Landover. Travel costs to the county were $92,000last year, Curran said.
'We don't have a facility that supports it,' Curran said.
Centreville Principal Mike Campbell, chairman of the NorthernRegion Council, a group of athletic directors and principals, saidthat Fairfax schools are considering running indoor meets outdoorsthis season and weighing several other 'creative solutions,'Campbell said.
Losing Fairfax County's 25 indoor track teams would make the'Northern Region championship very interesting, between four or fiveschools,' said T.C. Williams Principal Bill Clendaniel, whose schoolis located in Alexandria.
Washington-Lee, Wakefield and Yorktown (all located inArlington), T.C. Williams and Loudoun's Stone Bridge compete in theNorthern Region but are funded separately.
Curran said that future cuts in the county sports program wouldnot target any individual sports but would be made by trimming a'little bit from everywhere,' such as reducing the number of gamesat the non-varsity level.
Swimming, which has often been a candidate for cuts in the past,was not an option during the evaluation process because Curran saidthe sport had not seen a decline in participation.
This is not the first time high school sports in the area havefelt the bottom line. When facing a budget shortfall in 1991,Fairfax cut the number of sporting events for every team, other thanvarsity football and boys' and girls' basketball, by one to fourgames. Other events, many on the sub-varsity level, were dropped,but no sports were eliminated.
In 1992, Fairfax proposed cutting swimming and diving, whichprompted such a furious, well-organized 'Save Our Sport' outcry thatthe program was restored to the budget. Boys' gymnastics andfreshman cheerleading also were among proposed cuts that year, butthey, too, were spared.
Nationally, the school board in Mount Vernon, N.Y., last summereliminated funding for its high school sports after voters twicerejected a proposed budget; however, because of donations to a 'SaveOur Sports' initiative -- including a reported $100,000 fromformer resident and actor Denzel Washington -- sports havesurvived in Mount Vernon, for now.
In March, nearly 1,000 students at Encinal High School inAlameda, Calif., staged a walkout, leaving their classrooms andmarching two miles to the superintendent's office in protest of thelocal school board's decision to cut the high schools' sports budgetby 57 percent. A $120 per parcel tax passed in June, saving theschool district's athletic program.
Curran did not know if a 'Save Our Sports' initiative would work.
'I went this morning to ask that question and I was told that wasup to the school board,' Curran said.
Robinson Director of Student Activities Marty Riddle said he isexploring sponsorship options, recently meeting with a marketingfirm to discuss a regionwide sponsorship of Northern Regionathletics.
'It's something we're in the very tentative stages ofinvestigating,' Riddle said. 'One of the untapped resources, from amarketing standpoint, is high school athletics and how they can begenerating more money for us as schools. It's a fine line becauseyou don't want a school to go overboard, but at the same time, ifit's a revenue stream that hasn't been tapped. . . . We'll see if wecan find a happy medium in there.'
The school board is holding budget-specific public hearings Jan.26-27 and May 12-13, and the Board of Supervisors will hold publichearings March 31-April 2.
Staff writer Preston Williams contributed to this report.
