SJEL sports co-op talk brings several to forums

Public forums last week in St. John and Endicott brought out approximately 100 residents over the course of two nights to discuss a potential sports cooperative with the St. John/Endicott and LaCrosse schools.

The LaCrosse School District has asked to be able to officially join with St. John/Endicott for all sports. The district has cited declining participation numbers from its students, as well as for Washtucna and Kahlotus which had combined with LaCrosse in the past, but are now forming a cooperative with Ritzville.

SJE Superintendent Suzanne Schmick said the meetings last week went well.

“In a nutshell, we are very pleased,” she said. “There were poor weather conditions in St. John last week, so we were certainly pleased that so many came out. And on Thursday, there was better weather in Endicott, and we were very happy with the turnout there.”

Schmick said approximately 53 gathered in St. John Tuesday, Feb. 21, for the forum, and another 45 gathered in Endicott on Thursday, Feb. 23, for the forum there.

“We might have hoped for a few more folks coming out, but we so appreciate those folks coming out and sharing their thoughts and ideas,” she said.

Schmick said the feedback for the SJE Cooperative boards' proposal to form the cooperative was mostly positive.

“Some folks left us with some thoughts, and we don't want to undercut those thoughts,” she said. “That is what will help us shape this.”

The proposal includes six conditions. The first is that all LaCrosse sports teams combine with the SJE High School and ESJ Middle School teams, and the second being that all practices for high school teams remain in St. John, with the exception of baseball, which would continue in Endicott. All middle school practices would be in Endicott.

The third condition stipulates that all colors for SJEL and ESJL remain the same as currently used for SJE and ESJ, and the fourth condition is that LaCrosse will transport its athletes to practices and ride the SJE and ESJ busses to competitions.

The fifth condition is that the LaCrosse district participate financially in the cooperative, with the contributions capping out at 35 percent, depending on how many LaCrosse students are participating in each sport. The final condition is that one home game per sport would be held in LaCrosse each season.

“The one area that people were processing or asked us to process further was point six where we were talking about one game being played in LaCrosse,” said Schmick. “They want us to make sure that everything is fair and balanced.”

At meetings prior to the public forums last week, the cooperative boards have been discussing this point, and the Dec. 19 cooperative boards work session meeting minutes lists this point as a con to the potential cooperative. It detailed that the one home game would be lost, and with that game per sport, gate, dinner and concession revenues could also be lost.

Schmick said the board has taken the comments and plans to review them over the course of this week.

“We're looking at that data and saying, 'what are some of the next steps?'” she said.

The public forums allowed for verbal comment, and there was also an opportunity for attendees to fill out a survey ranking their degree of agreement or disagreement with each of the six points.

“That will give us further information,” said Schmick. “We'll work this next week on that, and from there, we'll have a better feel of what type of action we'll need.”

Schmick said comments on the proposal are still welcome.

“We are grateful for the patrons who came out,” she said. “If there are people who would still like an opportunity to express thoughts, contact me at the school numbers.”