By: Alexander Gault-Plate
OSWEGO – The Oswego City School District Board handled several contentious issues during their bi-weekly meeting Tuesday night, Mar.3, including athletic policies and the future of the Frederick Leighton Elementary school.
Issues of sports were particularly represented during the public comment period of the board meeting, where seven speakers stood to address their grievances.
Six of those seven speakers arose to address issues with decisions made on the eligibility of their students for early advancement in school sports.
Through the Athletic Placement Process, a process mandated by the state of New York to all public schools, a student may be permitted to play their sport of choice at a higher or lower level than the typical age and grade considerations would allow.
All six public commenters reported to the board that through informal messages, word of mouth and email, they had been told that their children were no longer eligible for APP considerations due to a board decision. All said that their children had been invited by a team coach to attempt to move up and were eventually blocked from the process and told their students were ineligible.
Two modified girls’ lacrosse players spoke to the board, asking for a reassessment of the rules.
“I do not make the rules, but I will follow the ones you have made,” said one of the students. “However, if you choose to not allow me to play [at a higher level], do not make up the excuse that I am not good enough to play.”
Board President Heather DelConte responded, saying that the board had been discussing the issue of APP for many years now, and the issue had given to the athletic director, Rhonda Bullard, to handle on a more individualized level.
“The board did not change or make a policy about APP,” DelConte said. “We did have a lengthy conversation about the APP, at the first meeting in January. One of the things we determined was that we couldn’t make a comprehensive policy that would fit every individual situation.”
Also during public comment, Sean Callen, president of Buc Boosters, a nonprofit organization that promotes Oswego athletics, spoke to the board about how five JV women’s basketball players, four of whom attended the meeting with Callen, were kept from participating in the varsity women’s basketball sectionals game on Feb. 22.
According to Callen’s statement to the board, five JV women’s basketball players were asked by the varsity coach to assist the varsity team with training after the JV season ended.
“The varsity team was short-staffed, with seven players, so the varsity coach asked these girls to attend varsity practices,” Callen said in his statement to the board. “You really need at least 10 players for an effective practice. The varsity coach then asked these girls to attend the varsity game, dressed and on the bench, to support the varsity players. The request was rejected.”
Callen said that the opposing team played exclusively JV players during the last two minutes of the game, as is common when a team is ahead by a healthy margin.
DelConte replied that the decision on what students play and do not play in games is decided by the athletic director and not by the school board.
Following public comment, Superintendent of the Oswego City School District Dean Goewey gave a report on the progress he and his office have made on the capital project started in 2018.
Goewey said that for phase three of the project, which involves a complete renovation of the Oswego Middle School, the seventh-grade class, including all teachers and support systems, will need to find a new home for two years.
“My recommendation to the board is a two-year elementary redistricting, which will allow for the repurposing of Leighton Elementary into an Oswego Middle School annex to provide swing space,” Goewey said.
This recommendation calls for the moving of all Leighton students and faculty into available space in the other four elementary schools in the district, with minimal renovations or adjustments to the Leighton building, over the course of the middle school renovations.
Goewey said that his reasoning for this recommendation was mainly because it allowed for the tight timeframe the project is currently on, as well as providing comparative financial savings. The other primary option, according to Goewey, would be to purchase or lease two units of portable classrooms, which would cost the district over $1.5 million to purchase, and double that to lease. He said that portable classrooms also offer no options for a cafeteria, support rooms, or physical education space
Board Vice President Kathleen Allen responded to Goewey’s suggestion strongly, calling for the board to reconsider all other possible solutions to keep Leighton open as an elementary school. She cited several reasons for her disagreement with the proposal, but cited student stability as her primary concern.
“If we’re putting kids first, and that’s what I keep coming back to, why wouldn’t we consider using [the district offices] instead?” Allen asked. “Are we putting kids first with this?”
Another major concern of Allen’s is that, with enrollment numbers decreasing across the board for the Oswego City School District, it would be unlikely that future district leadership would reopen the Leighton building as an elementary school.
Debate among the board members continued, and while most board members indicated that they supported Goewey’s proposal, all agreed to wait until the meeting on Apr. 7 to give the board’s official directive on the topic.
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