Piece of the pie

Students at Har-Ber are given ample opportunity and are surrounded with electives and extracurricular classes that cater towards their hobbies and future career interests. They dominate conferences in athletics, excel in both band and choir, and offer growing opportunities with art, journalism, and film classes. Of course, these phenomenal options and possibilities come with a price, in this case that price is literal. While we have some of the best opportunities in the state, there are still many questions from both students and staff about weather this funding is sufficient.

Mr. Kelly Hayes, the comptroller for the district, disclosed information that included the financial budgeting and funding distributions for extracurricular activities in the 2017-18 school year. Hayes also provided details as to how this funding was provided.

“Funding [for extracurricular activities] comes from athletic gate receipts and a combination of local property taxes and state,” stated Hayes.

But this brings to question if funds are distributed appropriately, according to need. The Springdale Public School district has done much to balance the budget, and most teachers agree that their funding is sufficient or efforts are being made towards adequate funding.  

When asked about funding distribution within sports Coach Wood stated

“In today’s athletic world it is an expensive business to have a high level program.  It takes a strong booster club to help support program growth”

For some programs without a booster club, funding becomes tight and opportunities are occasionally squandered due to a lack thereof. Additionally when asked if he believed if funding for football was adequate Wood stated,

“ I believe that our booster club and athletic department do a good job working together to provide for kids.  You can always use more, but thankful for what we achieve yearly. We have great parents and athletic department”

Other programs such as debate are having a more difficult time acquiring funds. When asked if the funding for his program was sufficient Joel brown, debate and forensics coach commented,

“It’s easy to say we are not adequately funded because we are one of the few programs that must stay in hotels almost every time we compete.  Also we have expanded our program to not just include debate but the forensics portion of being competitive. . . It has also doubled the size of our team which makes traveling even harder, especially when you have a parent base that’s not really motivated because you aren’t a sport.”  This illustrates how difficult it can be for other programs to fund all expenditures needed to provide students involved with the best opportunity.

Kelly Hayes comment on the same issue was

“It is the goal of our district to provide the best education possible for all students.  Dr. Rollins constantly states that we want students to ‘live up to their full potential and promise.’  With these goals in mind, I do believe that funding is adequate.”