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West Side Career &amp; Technology Center dropped all sports last year as way to save $109,000.


PRINGLE -- There will be no sports again next year at West Side Career &amp; Technology Center after a motion to reinstate them failed to gain a majority vote of the school&rsquo;s joint operating committee.
West Side dropped all sports last year as a way to save $109,000 during the budget process. School officials said about 96 students played sports on the five teams, though there were some who played more than one sport.
A coach, several students and an athlete from another school district all spoke in favor of bringing sports back at the committee&rsquo;s regular meeting Monday, but the board split 7-7 on the motion to reinstate the teams. 
Because the motion involved spending money, it would have required approval by a majority of present board members to pass, the school&rsquo;s solicitor said.
The vote was split mostly along sending district lines, with the representatives from Dallas and Wyoming Valley West and two of the Lake-Lehman representatives voting against the reinstatement and the representatives from Wyoming Area and Northwest Area, along with Lake-Lehman&rsquo;s Mark Kornoski voting in favor. 
&ldquo;I move that we reinstate the sports that were here before they were so rudely taken away from the kids,&rdquo; said Kornoski as he moved for the reinstatement.
Board members had little to say about the matter, beyond clarifying a few questions from audience members. But former assistant baseball coach Mike Jeschke said losing sports was detrimental to the kids and unfair when none of the sending schools had cut any sports from their own budgets.
&ldquo;Dallas has a new school and new fields. Wyoming Valley West uses everyone else&rsquo;s fields. No one else has dropped a sport, not even their eighth-grade programs,&rdquo; said Jeschke. 
&ldquo;Some of them pay five coaches for baseball,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Our coaches offered to do it for free for the kids. I don&rsquo;t understand this.&rdquo;
Student Ian Nelson said not having sports dampens school spirit. He said that although the West Side students can play on their sending school&rsquo;s teams, that doesn&rsquo;t usually work out well.
&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have the same chance to play,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Not having sports makes us feel like we&rsquo;re not a school here anymore.&rdquo;
Jordan Palkovic, who attends Wyoming Valley West and plays water polo, said his experience with Crestwood athletes who took part in water sports at Valley West after Crestwood did away with its program showed him what sports can do for morale. 
If those students wanted to play a sport, they had to &ldquo;play for Valley West with Crestwood blood inside them,&rdquo; he said.
&ldquo;Without sports, there&rsquo;s no sense of school pride,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There are no pep rallies, no spirit, and they probably just feel empty.&rdquo;
In other business, the board approved JoAnn Elko as business office clerk effective April 11. Physical education teacher Don Morgan was hired as the physical education make-up class instructor for 30 hours at $25 per hour to be paid by student tuition. 
What&rsquo;s next

The joint operating committee next meets on April 23.

Vote To Bring Back Sports At West Side Ctc Fails To Score