Fieldcrest bites the bullet

The question everyone is asking is what does the future hold? Apparently, the only way a sport or any other extra-curricular activity will be able to function is through support of the community. Not just moral support, but financial support. The citizens advisory committee appointed by the Board of Education supposedly will recommend to the Board what extra-curriculars will be ressurected and the method of financing to be used.

I have to give the Fieldcrest Board of Education credit for having the guts to face public criticism and make the hard and cruel decision to cut extra-curriculars. According to board member Joe Kirkpatrick over a $1,000,000 must be cut in order for the school to regain financial solvency. However, I do have sympathy for the students and the parents of the students who will suffer from the loss of these activities. I wish there was a way that the school could afford to keep everything as it is but, unfortunately, that is not possible given the financial straits of the school district. Fieldcrest, like many other schools, has been deficit spending and cutting into its reserves for many years now. The past has finally caught up with us.

It is unfortunate that we live in a state that ranks 47th in funding of education. If Illinois does not make education a higher priority, we will gradually sink to the level of states like Mississippi. The state will no longer be able to attract industry if it does not have properly educated residents.

Small rural communities like Minonk are the hardest hit because so much of their education funding is dependent on the value of farmland which has been declining for years. This condition increases the disparity between the quality of education between the urban areas and the rural areas. The politicans in Springfield will continue to ignore this fact because there are more voters in urban areas that there are in rural areas. We are left to find our own way out of this mess.

Biting the bullet and cutting out all extra-curriculars puts us back to square one. The school board in conjunction with the citizens advisory committee must decide the cost of each extra-curricular and prioritize them. Those extra-curriculars that fall below the cost cutoff line must either be dropped or supported by a local group.

Minonk has a new recreational resource with the building of the sports park at the north end of the city which includes a soccer field. Consideration could be given to an intramural soccer league that would allow Fieldcrest students to compete against each other. It would allow more students to participate in sports, would eliminate out-of town travel and is much less expensive to maintain than other sports. Implementing an intramural program can get the parents more involved also by providing transportation to the events and even help running the events.

One way we can resolve our current school crisis is for the community to become more involved in the running of our extra-curricular activities. Maybe we will have to come full circle back to self-sufficiency like we were 100 years ago. Instead of letting the school become babysitters for our children, now we will have to take a more active role in their education and in their extra-curricular activities. The change in our life style has resulted in not only discharging the care of our elderly to institutions, but also relegating the raising of our children to the school system.

The next few years will involve changes that will include community involvement and intramural sports to replace the traditional way of doing things. This scenario may sound scary to many. However, the result may be a more enjoyable and affordable program that allows the community to decide what is best rather than being tied to state mandates that make many of our school sponsored functions unaffordable.