The ‘who’ and the ‘why’ of the middle school travel ban

By Jeremy Hsieh, KTOO – Juneau

Public opposition to a middle school sports travel ban  adopted by the Juneau School Board last month  continues to be one-sided, and the anonymity of the ban’s community supporters is breeding skeptics of the official explanation .

Students and parents protest the middle school sports travel ban during a school summit at Thunder Mountain High School last month. About 40 people protested. Photo by Heather Bryant, KTOO – Juneau.

Floyd Dryden Middle School eighth grader Kathy Tran is one of many venting about the policy – and the way it was adopted.

“They said that there was a lot of people that supported this ban. And I was like, ‘Who?’” Tran said.

In more than a dozen interviews with board members, school officials, students and parents, no one has been willing or able to answer that question. Not one person spoke in favor of the ban during public testimony at the school board’s two meetings on the policy.

Board members say there is community support for the ban, but are unwilling to identify from whom.

“At this point, you know, we’re hearing it off the record,” said school board member Barbara Thurston, one of the three “no” votes.

Meanwhile, parents are organizing opposition. About 40 people picketed a school board meeting last month at Thunder Mountain High School. A Facebook group called Save our Middle School Sports created in February has 209 members. And in a nearly empty room in a nearly empty mall on a Tuesday, a dozen people were putting together a repeal campaign.

Jennifer Lindley, a Floyd Dryden mom and repeal organizer, said the school board acted undemocratically.

“They voted in favor of an unspoken minority that none of us can seem to find,” Lindley said. “I don’t know who my counterpart is.”

School board members on both sides said there is no hidden agenda, and that the board itself raised the travel policy issue.

The four school board members who voted for the ban argued it reduces the burden on already strained budgets and reduces the fundraising borne by local businesses and the community. They said it eliminates unfair differences between how travel requests are handled at Juneau’s two main middle schools.

School Board Vice President Sean O’Brien, said casting his “yes” vote was “agonizing.”

“The challenge is, is we have an obligation to kinda create a, a relatively equitable playing field,” O’Brien said.

Floyd Dryden Principal Tom Milliron uses a case-by-case approach, weighing the amount of time lost in the classroom against the potential benefits of travel.

Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School Principal Molly Yerkes does not allow out-of-town sports travel. She said it’s not right to spend so much time and effort arranging travel when staffing cuts have left her school without a fulltime certified nurse and sometimes a single adult supervising 150 students at lunch.

Neither principal asked the school board to weigh in, though Yerkes said she does support the ban because it clarifies district priorities.

Read the full article by Jeremy Hsieh from KTOO – Juneau.