School Boards meet over athletic combine

DAYTON-The School Boards of Dayton and Waitsburg met with the district Superintendents Guy Strot, Mark Pickel, and Athletic Director Sam Korslund to discuss the future of the athletic combine on June 1 ahead of the regularly monthly work session for the Dayton Board.

This was the first joint meeting since the early days of working out the combine. The purpose of the meeting was to address issues raised by Korslund at the May 18 meeting specifically the discipline policy for athletes at the two schools, the future of the middle school combine, the budget of the combine between schools and setting a plan for regular meetings and decisions about the combine going forward. The final two items were only discussed briefly due to time constraints and a future meeting will be set for some time the week of June 20 to continue the discussion.

Korslund said a big issue for him is the lack of continuity between schools regarding disciplinary action for athletes and lack of communication about those actions to him. It was suggested a report could be sent to him daily before the school day ends of those who had infractions. The Boards decided to review and compare the discipline policies for the schools and revise the Code of Conduct. Dayton Director Zac Fabian added the teachers should be familiar with the Code to be aware of when an athlete violates it.

Discussion about the middle school combine centered around the topics of giving the youth the best opportunity to play while not taking away from their academics. Dayton Chairman Jeff McCowen expressed concern about asking kids to come out for sports, but then having to turn them away because teams are too large. The added concern is those kids will not go out for the sport again.

In addition, Korslund said teams are required to play in leagues farther away because of large team size. This means having to leave early and miss part of the school day for games and meets. If the DW teams play more locally, they would not get as much playtime because they would be playing against smaller teams. Even if the DW teams are divided into squads, playing the other teams would not allow for fair competition because those local teams do not have squads. Dayton School Board members agreed this is problematic, but those on the Waitsburg Board members countered that secondary school activities run late sometimes, and competition is part of sports where you may have to try out.

When Waitsburg Chair Christy House asked Dayton what the pros are of keeping the middle school combined, they answered having larger teams. She suggested there were other reasons, but she and her fellow Board members did not provide any.

The Dayton Board responded with Chair Jeff McCowen stating that the objective is to have more players who have more playing time. Korinda Wallace answered that rather than looking at things by the positives and negatives, the goal is to gather information and determine if it is feasible to work out the issues. Aneesha Dieu suggested the Board focus on what is best for the kids in the larger picture for academics, school spirit, character building, and growing athletic skills and confidence.

The finances for the combine were discussed only briefly. Costs are split by the two districts, but Dayton has been responsible for the accounting. Strot suggested Waitsburg share the accounting going forward.

Additional plans for how to proceed were not discussed, but the Boards decided to meet again the week of June 20. As the special meeting closed, Waitsburg Director Stephanie Cole expressed appreciation for the meeting because it opens communication which is the foundation for all the issues raised.