The bond issue: Some clarification
July 30, 2008 @ 11:04 a.m. by Joannaby joanna
If you want to read today’s bond issue stories, check for the athletic facilities story here and a list of what’s out and what’s in for a possible revised bond proposal and Bob Lutz’s column on his feelings regarding the possible revision and a story on the new additions that were prosed for the bond issue.
There’s some topics I wanted to deal with concerning the bond issue. Obviously I’ve written an awful lot of stories regarding the athletic side of the issue, so I do have some background here.
The last bond issue was about air conditioning and more classrooms. What did it do for athletics? Not much. It took care of East’s ridiculously old gym and built a new one. (Also took out the East pool and didn’t build a new one.) That was the major thing.
That bond issue was a long time coming considering that it had been nearly 30 years since the previous bond issue. I’m not surprised that another bond issue has been proposed eight years later. There was catching up that had to be done.
I know this bond issue is huge, I know that we’re all worried about money and taxes and losing jobs and increasing costs of health care and everything else. But I also know what these schools look like. I’ve seen them firsthand and I’ve seen what the athletic facilities look like. City League athletic director Bill Faflick has often said that he’s not asking for the Taj Mahal or Olympic-quality facilities, he just wants the Wichita kids to have nice facilities.
The pools in Wichita are so old (outside of Northwest), the football fields get trashed through a season, the gymnasiums are small, the tennis courts have got to be a safety issue. This isn’t opinion, it’s what I’ve seen.
Are academics more important than athletics? Most definitely. But athletics should be a part of a student’s high school life. They are important. I can’t imagine anyone here disagreeing with that.
There was a question on the number of tennis courts — 56. I imagine that was because each school would have eight courts and that would mean they could host tournaments. You really can’t host a tournament with anything less. Maybe it could be scaled back to four each? It’s worth a shot.
I’ve wondered about having a district stadium like Topeka has with Hummer. Having a district natatorium could be a really good thing, for example.
I agree with one poster who mentioned getting some of the alums involved. Maybe not necessarily monetarily, but what about selling the bond issue?
These are just some of the thoughts I had reading all the comments on the other post. Any questions or comments, feel free to put here or on the other one.
