June 21, 2023 at 5:00 PM - Athletic Committee Meeting

Discussion:  King made a motion to approve minutes from last meeting and Safdie with the second. 
Davis then asked to look at the 1-23-23 minutes. He brought up that Safdie made the motion for a vote of confidence in the Director's future decision in TMSAA with others voting yes and the motion passing unanimously. He wanted to make sure that everyone understood what came out of the last meeting before moving forward on this decision. 

Discussion:  Davis brought up this item and told everyone that this is to make everyone aware that a strategic plan is being built for the county and within the steering committee is a sub committee focused on athletics. He said that the community structure is comprised of county commissioners, high school principals, current AD's, elementary school principals, and Davis himself as a BOE member. The supporting document that showed a wish list of what everyone would like to see was projected and Davis went item by item to explain what collectively the sub committee had come up with to be a springboard for the students. Boston asked if the district is taking the middle school grades, since the district doesn't technically have middle schools, and putting those grade levels at the feeder schools into CCHS and SMHS. Davis said yes potentially. 

Discussion:  Davis brought up this item and told everyone that Patton is retiring and he didn't ask Patton for this report so they could move on. Patton said he appreciated his 40 year career in the county and the last 6 as AD. 

Discussion:  Davis introduced this item and told everyone that he is giving a timed section for anyone that would like to comment on TMSAA. He said that the framework within TMSAA allows elementary V and JV to have sports seasons. Meaning 6-8 eligible student athletes can participate in TMSAA sports. Hamby asked him to verify that they had actually held 11 subcommittee meetings. He said yes, about that many. Hamby said she wasn't aware that there had been meetings called. The meeting was open to public comments. 
DAN SCHLAFER-He spoke in favor of having the county operate under TMSAA and told everyone that this would be a fantastic opportunity for the students. He said TMSAA was an organization that made sure everything was done right for kids in sports. 
NATHAN CLOUSE-He said he didn't think it was a bad idea but the district is rushing into this. He said the $2700 is not the amount the district would be spending. It's more along the lines of $17,700. We are begging for money for SPED teachers, but while athletics is important, it's not the key to the system. He said when we are struggling to add teachers in the system, this should be on the backburner. He said logistics are not going to work with having to have schools combined and parents trying to get students to schools out of the way. He told the committee that good athletes would be eliminated because of that fact alone. He said when schools have concessions and admissions, that TMSAA now gets a % of that, so now the county athletics are cutting a portion of their profits out. 
JASON FUTTRELL-He told the committee that basketball was left out of middle school sports. And that students may not make the teams. That's just the nature of the sport. He said if the district is following the rules, then all the rules need to be followed and don't bend the rules for one. If you are doing football, then basketball and volleyball and all others need their fair opportunity. 
BRIAN TEMPLETON-As a parent, he's all for it. And as a coach as well.  He told the committee there's a struggle for finding umpires and all surrounding counties are associated with TMSAA, so they don't always want to compete against Cumberland County. He said for baseball, they don't get anything at the end of the year to play for. This will make their season meaningful. 
DARREN BARTON-Barton told the committee he was speaking as an orthopedic surgeon. He feels that the time off that TMSAA will require will cause the district to see fewer sports-related injuries among our students. He said evidence-based medicine benefits restrictions on athletes. 
DUSTIN NORROD-Norrod spoke in favor of TMSAA and did not see any cons of moving forward into middle school sports. He said the transportation to and from might be a problem for some students, but overall, if the kids could make a team, they could make the transportation happen. He said he feels it would take a lot of liability off of the county and put in onto the state with TSMAA. 
HATHER JONES-She said that, as a PV parent, co-oping with Crab Orchard has been a concern for some parents, but she is seeing happier students playing with more kids their age/grade level. She feels TMSAA will actually pull more kids in and give opportunities to younger students sooner. 
DAVE BRUNDIDGE-He said that as a parent of twin students that play sports, he's not set up his daughter to play with kids that are not her age, so he doesn't set her up for failure. His son is currently playing travel ball in Knoxville due to being able to play with students closer to his age. He feels this will allow students to play those middle school sports and not eliminate them. 
STUART SITTON-He said he understands the concern about kids being cut from teams and he doesn't know that there's a solution to that. He said that in the county we have high-level athletes and they need something in place to let them excel. He said it's difficult to get the team chemistry and build the program to get the students ready to compete at a higher level. 
CHRIS MOSLEY-He said that if the district goes for TMSAA then basketball needs to be added because it's been left out. He said he's trying to get kids ready for high school, but it helps to have everything cohesive. He said he's for TMSAA but that basketball must be included in that. 
Patton clarified that Cross Country will not be cutting any students as some perceive that. Due to the structure of their meets, all students make the team. 
NICOLE BARTON-She said, as a cross country coach, yes they have the ability to keep all students. She said she is a proponent of joining TMSAA. Her son runs cross country but only had the ability to run against students here and he needed to run against higher caliber athletes. TMSAA will allow our county to compete against other counties and other athletes. She said when she asked students to come to practices 5 times a week, she had many students quit the team and TMSAA would allow students to have the skills needed to excel at the high school level. 
IVY MAYBERRY-She said the ultimate goal for the board is true middle schools and have that in their future vision. She said the opposition argument that she's heard the most is the numbers. She said that with TMSAA will give over 1000 kids will have the opportunity to play basketball, which is way more than the district offers them now. She said her team has beaten all surrounding schools they have played so far. If middle school is not implemented, then Cumberland Co athletes will not get the opportunities for scholarships that other county students are getting.  Give kids the opportunity for kids to have a championship this year. 
TRENT STOKES-He said participation should go up if the county adds middle school sports. He said at times cutting, kids benefits the student in the long run. He said they are looking for governance and consistency which TMSAA will provide the students and the district instead of the free for all, that seems to be what they deal with now. 
MIKE BUCK-He said he was excited to come to Cumberland County to coach and he went to all the elementary schools when he came here in 1996 and asked to get on the same page so we could teach the sports culture at a younger age to win championships. He said he was blown off and it led to some bad culture and he spoke to the point that middle schools would give the kids the best of the best. His son walked away from basketball as a sophomore due to not being that great of a player, but would have been given more a chance if he'd been given the sport in middle school grades. He encouraged the district to let the kids grow and mature, starting at a younger age. 
NEIL CAPPS-He attested to coach Buck's statement that the athletes were not ready and the first 5 years were a struggle. He said that some of his better players played under him at North and then went to the high school, as he was coaching both the elementary level and high school level. Due to those kids being given the opportunity at a younger middle school age, made them better athletes at the high school level. 
KIM CRAMM TORRES-She said she's had many opportunities to coach and coached in Southern Cal for 15 years and saw a lot of success and those kids played together in those middle school grades. She said we are underserving kids now unless they are super talented or genetically blessed athletically. She said that is frustrating to see other sports with so many athletes but basketball not being given the opportunity. She would like to move forward to let basketball join the others. 
SCOTT CALAHAN-He said a great benefit of letting kids play at higher levels is letting our kids compete against those other states and cities. He said getting quality coaches into positions is getting tougher. Quality programs under quality instruction will help that situation. And it also allows struggling kids to play multiple sports and be protected. 
MATT TROINO-He said was for middle school programs. And that as good as some athletes were, if they had been given 3 more years then the district might have more trophies in the case. 
SCOTT MADDOX-He said, as an admin at SMHS, his primary goal was for the students' participation in athletics to increase. He said that in order to be successful, we must have the best athletes that are in school. TMSAA gives the guidelines to allow students to move from one sport to another. He told everyone that the best athletes that he ever had in his schools were multi-sport athletes and the district needed the governance brought about by TMSAA. 

Discussion:  Davis brought up this item and asked the committee how we prepare/allocate funding that will allow admin and the community's voices to be heard and move forward to do their respective duties. 
Boston said if the committee recommends it to the full board, then it would be passed on to the budget committee. She said funding would not be a problem. 
Davis said that the $17,700 is our portion of the obligation to join TMSAA. He asked if the district had the $561,000 to pay for the supplements? Boston said yes, that was budgeted. He asked how $61,000 was increased from last year to this year? Bray told him that years of experience with coaches has to be projected that they might move up the scale. 
Hamby asked how this takes precedence over safety and teachers? They were begging for money for SPED teachers but wanted to know how this would rise above that? Boston said it was not an issue of more or less importance. She said you couldn't categorize one as being more important than the other. 
Cramm said the goal should always be to hire coaches who teach. Career teachers and career coaches who want to be invested in the school other than just coach. Someone who would contribute to the overall culture of the school. Davis said he's asking to make a motion and vote of confidence to allow the budget committee to provide funding to support the initiative that we've already allowed Mr. Stepp to move toward TMSAA. Boston said if he would make a recommendation one way of the other and send it to the full board, then once the board approves, the budget committee will come in and fund it. Davis tried to make a motion to make funding available to finance TMSAA. Safdie with the second. Boston asked if he was recommending that we go with TMSAA. He said yes. Boston said he needs to make a motion to send TMSAA to the full board, not make a motion for funding. He said he was under the impression that the board didn't have to make that decision. Boston said if it involves funding, they do. Davis retracted the previous motion. Safdie retracted his second. Davis asked why a motion has to be made for the board to approve. Stull said because money is involved. Hamby said also because the last time it was on an agenda meeting, they approved to table TMSAA until this meeting could be held and recommendation sent back to full board. Davis asked who determines that. Boston said money does. He then asked that for every dollar that has ever been spent, the board has made a recommendation to the full board for the approval of the item.  Hamby said yes and if it wasn't handled that way then it was done incorrectly and against policy. He then asked if that if we find it wasn't done correctly then what happens? Boston asked if he was going to go back and do an audit? Davis finally asked how he needed to make the correct motion. After Boston telling him that joining TMSAA just needed to be recommended to the board, Safdie made the motion to recommend joining TMSAA to the full board. Davis with a second. 

Discussion:  The meeting was adjourned at approximately 7:07 pm.