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Plan to charge athletes for bus rides tabled again

Thursday, July 10, 2008
By ADAM COATES, Assistant Editor

The Greencastle School Board held off again Wednesday night in deciding whether to charge student athletes for bus rides taken to sporting events.

Corporation officials supporting the idea hope it will help them cover expenses related to buses being used to take sports teams to and from games during the school year -- mainly gasoline.

Supt. Bob Green told the school board that the corporation is paying double what it did a year for fuel. Normally, he said, the school pays between $85,000 and 90,000 for fuel during the year.

This year, the corporation is projected to spend between $180,000 and 190,000 for fuel.

All this adds up to the corporation having to borrow $3.5 million to date to float the general fund as property tax revenues are being delayed yet again.

Green told the school board Wednesday night that he anticipates having to borrow an additional $1.5 million.

Meanwhile, the board is considering implementing a fee of $25 to $35 for all students who participate in sports activities to help cover fuel and related costs.

Athletic Director Scott Knapp was asked to come up with some numbers for the board and presented them with the idea of a flat fee for athletes.

He said the average bus trip to a sporting event costs the corporation $90, which includes fuel and the bus driver's pay. There were 245 such trips made during the last school year, he said.

Board members, on Wednesday, tossed out the idea that the flat fee may not be the best way to charge students. They suggested charging students on a "per trip" basis, meaning each student would pay based on the number of events they attended.

Board members made the suggestion because they said it wouldn't be fair to charge each student the same since each sport requires different numbers of games.

An example they gave was a football player traveling to just five games in the season, while a basketball player traveled to 15 games.

In the end, board members requested that Knapp go back and develop figures for the "per trip" in addition to the flat fee.

They plan to discuss it at their August meeting

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  • Lets get this right...Public School..Pay to park your car, Pay for your books, Pay to rent your sports uniform, now pay to ride the bus!! I thought thats what we paid taxes for?!?!? I can not wait for November to come along and get Junior Bush the heck out of the office!

    -- Posted by localjoe on Thu, Jul 10, 2008, at 5:56 AM

  • While certainly agreeing with localjoe regarding charging student athlete bus fares to events, I can't wait until November but for different reasons. President Bush (yes, he is the president of the United States of America and deserves to referenced as that)has been blamed for everything from Hurricane's to bombing our own land. Do you not know that Congress makes the decisions he approves or disapproves called veto! You best look at what you have in the Senate and House and their party affiliation before inserting foot. No, I don't like the prices of oil either but I put the blame on our elected senators and representatives. My votes in November will reflect that as should yours.

    -- Posted by bearcat on Thu, Jul 10, 2008, at 6:53 AM

  • What does the President have to do with this decision? This is a local decision by a local school board, appointed. I know alot of parents who drive to sporting events to watch their child participate, including myself. If I am going to get charged some ridiculous fee for my child to ride the bus I will take my child myself and I imagine other parents would carpool the kids there if we have to to not pay this fee. But, of course this will not be allowed because this makes too much sense. Why can't they do fundraisers to cover this per sport. Just a thought.

    -- Posted by HelloMcFly on Thu, Jul 10, 2008, at 8:58 AM

  • Oh bearcat, you definitely sound like a Republican trying to blame those others for mistakes of Pres. Bush. By the way, we were doing very good until he came into office and totally ruined the economy! He was able to ruin it before those in the Senate and House made their changes. It's always someone else and that's exactly WHY we are in the position we are in now. Chances are, you'll be voting Republican once again and still be upset about the economy! It shouldn't take a brain surgeon to see what is happening in this country and WHO'S getting rich.

    By the way, I'm so glad my kids are out of school because I'd have to think about a private school. What's the difference? If I have to pay for all 'extras', we may as well send them elsewhere. Public school is REALLY getting too expensive.

    -- Posted by bannerstuff on Thu, Jul 10, 2008, at 9:07 AM

  • Greencastle School Board does NOT allow fundraisers for their athletic program other than the one in the spring per year. That certainly is a good idea but that rule would have to be changed first.

    -- Posted by bannerstuff on Thu, Jul 10, 2008, at 9:10 AM

  • It was only a matter of time.

    -- Posted by ladycoltsfan on Thu, Jul 10, 2008, at 9:49 AM

  • Why don't we get rid of all the Republicans? Sounds like The Demorcrats do everything right? How come somebody smarter than me think of this before. I think helping the kids have a full education is what we MUST do and sports is part of that education. Actually we could just charge the parents of athletes who don't even go to their childs events. Why would they care, their saving fuel anyway by not going. From the number that I see not attending, this should be more than enough.

    -- Posted by Insane Due to Society on Thu, Jul 10, 2008, at 11:05 AM

  • What's this going to do to the ones that come from low income families. They verily have enough to support their families let alone pay for bus rides to school events. Do they have to give up their zeal to excel in sports and possibly excel in sports and receive a scholarship that will help improve chances for upper class employment and living conditions for their families. I guess they can make their day into 36 hours, this way they can go to school as required by law, work a regular job and attend all required games and practices demanded to succeed in sports. This would give them the required 8 hours of sleep that is suggested to maintain good health.

    -- Posted by randykekar on Thu, Jul 10, 2008, at 12:34 PM

  • I guess I don't quite understand why the students should have to pay for gas to play sports. They are playing sports to represent the schools they attend. The parents and students have to pay to watch the sports at home games and away games, shouldn't some of that money go toward the gas for away games. What about the concession money and fundraising money. I know it is extremely expensive to fund athletic events but let's not forget the students and coaches work hard to represent our school system. I know some people do not think sports are important but what will the kids be doing if they are not putting their energy in sports. Will they start thinking of other ways to keep themselves busy. You hear all the time that communities are trying to keep kids off the streets and away from drugs and by doing this they come up with sports and other activities for them. Let's not move backwards, let's find a way to make this happen without causing too much hardship on families of any income level. It should'nt be about how much a student's parent makes anyway.

    -- Posted by familycounts on Thu, Jul 10, 2008, at 2:27 PM

  • THis is why I Homeschool...

    -- Posted by luv2bmom2001 on Thu, Jul 10, 2008, at 2:46 PM

  • Let's think about this for a moment, shall we? How much a year does each family pay to watch their child play sports, if they are fortunate enough to even afford to allow their child to participate? There has been times when having the $8 for my husband & I just to get in the gate was hard, which made me think, how many children don't play sports bc their parents just dont have the $...what happens to these children? We pay for taxes....we pay for books that we dont even get to keep, we pay to let our children play the sport that represents our school, the least thing our schools can do is take care of the transportation. The next time your at a game look around & think about just each adult paying $4 just to get in the gate.

    Come on this idea needs to be gased !

    -- Posted by sincere on Thu, Jul 10, 2008, at 8:08 PM

  • People with kids in school pay too many extra fees already. If you're gonna make 'em pay to ride the bus to the games, I suggest you make it an option for their parents to take 'em. There shouldn't be any rule that says they can't.

    -- Posted by whatsup on Thu, Jul 10, 2008, at 9:00 PM

  • I'm glad we don't live in Greencastle School district!!!

    -- Posted by what_it's_worth on Thu, Jul 10, 2008, at 9:30 PM

  • Man, I feel for you all..

    When I was in school it was a rule that if you rode with your mom, you didn't play - I made that mistake my first game playing volleyball (no one told me any different) and I sat on the bench the whole game. (they didn't want me to play anyeways.)

    Now they want to charge you to take your kids to a game?! how dumb.

    They should change that rule - parents would carpool to save money - I know they would! Why hasn't the committee thought of this??

    I feel for you Greencastle Parents.

    -- Posted by luv2bmom2001 on Fri, Jul 11, 2008, at 8:59 AM
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