USD 501 mulls improvements to sports offerings

The Topeka board of education is considering improvements to its middle school sports programs based on an audit last year that found deficiencies with offerings at that level.

Last year, Phil Laurie, a former Big 8 and Big 12 official and former Topeka High coach, audited Topeka Unified School District 501's sports programs.

Laurie concluded the middle schools lack a competitive approach to sports -- part of a philosophy of de-emphasizing athletic competition in those grades that dated back to the 1970s and that he said had taken a toll on high school sports, too.

The district assembled a committee that presented proposals to the school board Thursday to address the problems.

The proposals include expanding sports offerings, updating facilities, offering transportation for students to practices and games to increase access, competing against out-of-district middle schools at Hummer Sports Park, adding elementary summer sports camps and other changes.

New middle school sports would include soccer, spirit squads and cross country.

"It would be really neat to start middle school soccer in our county," said Stout Elementary principal Jeff Litfin, who presented the proposals.

Litfin said the goal of improving sports programs is to engage children, so they don't go directly home and watch TV after school, adding this would have short-term and long-term benefits.

"What I'm really looking at is kids being part of something," he said. "If they're part of something in middle school, they're going to be part of something in high school."

Board members sounded generally supportive of the ideas, in particular of offering transportation and introducing soccer.

"I hope that as we continue to look at adding sports," board vice president Peg McCarthy said, "that we rely heavily on input from students and families."

The proposals would total around $390,000, including some annual expenses and some non-annual expenses. The school board has yet to decide whether to incorporate some or all of the proposals.

In other news:

- For the fourth year in a row, USD 501 won't see an increase in insurance premiums, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas says.

Many school districts have faced sharp increases in health insurance costs in recent years. USD 501 most recently saw increases of $1.26 million and $2.38 million in fiscal 2010 and fiscal 2011. For fiscal 2012 through fiscal 2015, the district's premiums didn't increase.

"Having been in the medical profession for a number of years and having seen rates go through the ceiling," board member Michael Morrison said, "four years in a row is highly remarkable."

- The school board approved about $5 million in spending as part of its bond initiative to upgrade its Cisco network platform. The district says the expense is necessary to allow for the expansion of camera and door security and the use of classroom technology, which were part of the bond projects approved by voters in April.

The upgrade will affect routers and switches, fiber connections and other technology infrastructure.

- The school board heard an update on the Communities in Schools and Jobs for America's Graduates programs, which aim to help at-risk students and reduce dropout rates.

Communities in Schools, which works one-on-one with students who are facing difficult life barriers to academic success. JAG is a smaller program managed through Communities in Schools that launched classes this year at Highland Park and Topeka West.

Among the programs' results, Communities in Schools Mid-America CEO Malissa Martin said the former served more than 4,200 students in USD 501 this year, including case-management services for about 400 students.

Martin said suspensions have fallen among the case-managed students over the past two school years, and attendance and academic performance improved.