Courageous students

I am inspired by the courage of the students of the Gay-Straight Alliance at Mount Si High School, the parents and teachers that support them, and the Snoqualmie Valley School District to continue with the Day of Silence despite overwhelming opposition.

Your message has a farther-reaching impact than you might think. It is unfortunate that some parents feel the need to keep their children home on this day. The fear they are experiencing is similar to the fear that gay students have every day when they go to school and are verbally and physically abused. It is challenging to spend every day being told that you are not equal and worthy of the same treatment as others.

The Day of Silence is about bringing awareness of this issue to our community, and in that mission, it has been a huge success. We must always continue to seek the ways in which we are all alike, rather than being so afraid of the ways we are different.

Janet Sailer

North Bend

Dam the Middle Fork

I would like to comment on the letter to the editor submitted by Art Reid and appearing in the Valley Record on April 15, titled “Build a dam, save more fish.” As I recall, the idea to build a dam on the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River was proposed a good many years ago, but for reasons unknown to me, never got off the ground. Mr. Reid gives special emphasis to the fishery, but I really think his idea may hold the answer to the flooding problem in the Upper and Lower Valley. The Middle Fork is the major tributary to the Snoqualmie River. It just stands to reason that if you control the flow on the Middle Fork, you can control the flow on the Snoqualmie.

I also invite your attention to that issue’s other letter to the editor, titled “Flood’s dark side” written by Barbara Mooney of Havre, Mont., telling of the hardships that her parents endured during the last flood. (Valley Record, April 15) Many Valley residents can tell of similar or even more tragic stories. It goes on and on, year after year.

I have already been told that a dam on the Middle Fork would probably not get the endorsement of Congressman Reichert or Senator Murray in view of their bill to add 22,000 acres of low-elevation land to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area. (See page 1, Valley Record, April 15). Maybe the recreational aspects of a reservoir would be compatible with their legislation. I don’t know. But I do know that we need an answer to Valley flooding.

I have also been told that there is a natural spot for a dam and reservoir on the Middle Fork. I don’t know Mr. Reid, but I do believe his idea has merit and is worthy of further consideration and study. The Snoqualmie Valley has endured flooding for too many years. If a dam on the Middle Fork would alleviate or eliminate valley flooding, we need to look into it. We need a solution, and the sooner the better.

John Lund

North Bend

Save middle school sports

The district is facing painful budget cuts.

The school board and superintendent have put much time into the “Expenditure Reduction Plan.”

However, the school board should reconsider its current plan to change middle school sports programs from interscholastic to intramural.

Athletics galvanizes communities and creates an environment for our children to excel and grow in ways that cannot be achieved elsewhere. I attribute much of my success in life to the things I learned in school-sponsored sports.

Athletics teaches kids discipline, commitment, accountability and teamwork, four characteristics all too fleeting in today’s society.

To some degree, the school district recognizes the value of athletics, which is presumably why it suggested an intramural model. I speak from experience that intramural athletics is nothing like interscholastic sports. I played both in each of my seven years in middle school and high school. Intramural sports are fun but do not impart character, discipline and accountability to the degree that more formal and rigorous school-sponsored, interscholastic sports do.

Intramural sports also do not prepare kids to play at the high school level, which will hurt the success of high school sports teams and students’ abilities to get athletic scholarships to college.

The budget for extracurricular programs at the middle schools totals $471,000 annually. According to Superintendent Aune, approximately 80 percent, or $376,800, of this budget pays stipends for both head coaches and assistant coaches. The remainder, $94,000, pays for transportation costs, supplies, equipment and officiating.

I propose three ways for the district to fund middle school sports under the current interscholastic model while still cutting $300,000:

• Cut stipends by 50 percent — This alone would save the district $188,400. Coaches at the K-12 level do not coach for the money. They coach because they love their sport and teaching it to kids. While no one wants a 50 percent pay cut, I suspect nearly every coach in the district would prefer that to the current proposal. Alternatively, you could cut the head coach stipend by less and eliminate the assistant coach stipend altogether, making it a volunteer position.

• Cut all busing to athletic events — The events themselves are core to our children’s education. Transportation on a school bus is not. I don’t know what portion of the $94,000 transportation/supplies/officiating budget goes to busing, but I’m guessing it’s north of 50 percent. If that is true, then cutting that nice-to-have service is worth at least another $47,000. This brings the total savings to $235,400, just $64,600 short of the district’s goal of $300,000.

• Institute a pay-to-play policy — My understanding is that more than 1,200 middle school students participate in school sports across the district. To recapture the $64,600 and “balance the budget,” a participation fee of $53 per student would suffice. You could bump that to $60 to create a scholarship program for student athletes from low-income families. There is not a privately-organized sport that charges only $60 to play.

It is the responsibility of our schools to educate our children, both inside and outside of the classroom. School-sponsored, competitive athletic activities are not a “nice-to-have” function. They are a critical, must-have part of our children’s education that prepare them for many of the challenges they will face in the years ahead. Once interscholastic sports leave the schools, they will likely never return.

The school board should reconsider its decision to remove interscholastic sports from the middle schools. More than 1,200 student athletes are asking the same.

Sean Sundwall

Snoqualmie