The countdown begins! One week from today (Thurs., March 10th) the HISD board of Trustees meets and UIL sports for magnet only high schools is on the line. Please email, call, write, TALK to the board members and remind them to consider FACTS when making their decision.
Conversations with several board members have confirmed that the board is being given false and misleading information by the athletic department to sway them in favor of this proposal. See
www.vanguardian.org for a list of talking points.
PLEASE come to the meeting. Sign up to talk or just stand when the magnet school speakers are up. We need to let the board members know they are not being
given accurate information from administration.
We NEED YOUR STUDENTS! Students are the best speakers we can put up there and remind the board this is about STUDENTS and not the politics of adults. Don't forget - losing UIL sports could be just the first step. UIL theatre? UIL academic competitions? What's next??!!!
Once the agenda is posted, we will provide links for signing up to speak.
A more detailed explanation of the issues can be found here.
A summary of our main talking points are as follows:
- District policy allows schools to decide whether or not to participate in UIL sports. Some magnet only schools that have applied for UIL athletics have been discouraged to apply by the HISD athletic department. This is a direct violation of fair access.
- The policy of requiring students at magnet only schools who wish to play UIL sports to travel to their zoned campus is, more often than not, logistically impossible. Students could only participate if practice schedules and private transportation allowed AND the zoned school accepts them. This denies UIL access to thousands of students at the 21 magnet only schools within HISD.
- UIL sports are funded by individual schools. Club sports are funded by individual students. By restricting magnet only schools to offer only club sports, imposes a financial burden on students who wish to participate, and restricts participation to those with financial means. Again, this ultimately restricts student access to athletics.
- Athletics at the UIL level are more demanding and require a greater commitment than those at the club or intramural level. They are an important part of a college bound culture. Denying our college preparatory schools access is inherently unfair.
- Magnet applications were submitted in December. Applicants had to indicate their preference by ranking schools. Those who chose CVHS because of its combination of strong academics and UIL athletic programs will have no recourse to attend another magnet school.
- Magnet only schools with middle school programs are losing many students during the high school transition as those students that participate in UIL sports in middle school have to give that up if they stay for high school. Does administration want these schools to fail?
- Magnet funds are NOT being used to pay for UIL sports. Schools must find the money in their general fund.
Please contact board members on both sides of this issue to emphasize that all magnet only schools can benefit from UIL athletic programs. The decision should be made by individual schools, not by the District Executive Committee and the large zoned high schools who make up its membership. We want fair access for all students.
Those who voted to uphold current policy allowing decisions about UIL athletics participation to be made at the individual school level were:
