cincifbfan
Well-known member
This right here. You forgot about Princeton's multi-million dollar renovation and upgrades to the athletic facilities.
GMC 2025
- Thread starter GLAT
- Start date
VanlueVsTheWorld
VANLUE!!!
Good thing Vanlue doesn't have this problem.
EHS 2001
Moderator
I remember that story. $22 million in athletic facility upgrades paid for out of the district operating budget announced on November 25, 2024.
Princeton High School's stadium is set to receive a $22 million upgrade
Princeton High School’s Pat Mancuso Field at Jake Sweeney Automotive Stadium is scheduled to close to the public starting Dec. 21 for the start of a $22 million upgrade project.
www.wcpo.com
17 days later, the district announced a hiring freeze and other cuts in response to a levy failure. https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-new...cuts-and-hiring-freeze-after-tax-levy-failure
The levy failed before the athletic facility upgrades were announced.
boothmark77
Well-known member
Never fear. Princeton has an emergency levy in May to stop all of this.
WTF is an emergency levy?
Princeton City Schools proposes emergency levy to avoid severe budget cuts and potential school closure
The proposed emergency levy aims to generate $12.8 million over the next 10 years. Homeowners would pay approximately $231 for every $100,000 of their home's appraised value.
www.wcpo.com
cincifbfan
Well-known member
You are going to see lots of levies for LOTS of money in the next few years. School costs have exploded since covid, even simple things like heat and electricity have almost doubled. Other things like paper and printer toner have more than doubled for schools. Meanwhile, there's teacher shortages and most haven't gotten much in terms of raises since Covid, so they'll definitely be wanting more money, and schools will most likely have to pony up since people are leaving the profession in record numbers. STRS is also pushing for legislation that'll increase schools' contribution rate into the teachers pension. Combine that with state cuts to public schools which will put more on the local government just to keep things at the status quo. Buckle up everyone, schools, police, fire depts, etc are all going to also be putting levies forward too.Never fear. Princeton has an emergency levy in May to stop all of this.
WTF is an emergency levy?
Princeton City Schools proposes emergency levy to avoid severe budget cuts and potential school closure
The proposed emergency levy aims to generate $12.8 million over the next 10 years. Homeowners would pay approximately $231 for every $100,000 of their home's appraised value.
There's going to be a breaking point at some point with all the taxes we pay, it's not sustainable.
The athletics upgrades was included in the plans of the new high school when it was built. This levy is different and I will still vote no.
cincifbfan
Well-known member
Pretty easy to not upgrade and use that money for academics
I agree that the school should be open and just call the position what it is. Princeton elementary schools aren't closing so they can pay the football coach. The teachers who aren't involved in campus activities outside their classroom don't impact as many kids, nor put in as much time and work on a day to day basis as the football coach does. No matter how many years in the union they have.
Again... Investing in athletics = investing in academics. Administrators are seeing the results and that's why they are pouring money into upgrading facilities. Kids in sports stay off the streets. Kids in sports get better grades, have fewer discipline issues. High school sports aren't a multi-million dollar industry. Nobody is getting rich off this. It is all about having facilities that encourage kids to participate, because when they do, they become better students.
cincifbfan
Well-known member
Well this is just an outright lie. Most teachers I know work way more hours than football coach (maybe not during the season, but outside the season). And every high school teacher has more kids every day than the football coach who isn't teaching. He coaches 80ish kids a day, and the teacher sees 150+ each day, all year round. The high school coach doesn't see his players every day when the season is over.
This isn't all accurate, especially when so many coaches get their athletes out of consequences. That's why so many star athletes continue to have disciplinary problems after high school, because they never faced any consequences.
Look, I'm all for extracurriculars, they are positive for kids. But upgrading the facilities is a want, not a need. They need to not spend money on the upgrades to avoid the major budget issues they are facing, all because district administration and treasurer can't or refuse to do basic math & accounting.
There is no way this levy in Princeton is passing, it's going to cost property owners around 700 dollars a year (with a conservative with 300k property assessment value). It's really difficult to spend over 22 million dollars on sports fields that are perfectly fine when the budget is short 12 million.
GLAT
Inactive
Wrong
There is a difference between time spent around kids, and impact on them. IMO, Football Coach should be viewed equal to an administrator, not equal to an algebra teacher. Admins are on a different pay scale than teachers.
Your mind won't be changed on this so there is really no point in my response, but I'm a glutton for exercises in futility. I view sports, and every other club or activity, as "co-curricular" rather than "extra-curricular". Sports, Clubs, performing arts, are not separate from academics. They are interdependent on one another and add to each other. There are also plenty of star athletes that never get in trouble and go on to become wonderful people with fantastic careers because of the lessons they learn in sports.
FootballPsychGuy
Active member
Much of what you say seems like you're a fairly reasonable, logical thinking person, for the most part. But as a HS teacher of 39 years to date, and a HS coach of multiple sports, 35 of those 39 years, I found your viewpoint on the classroom teachers' impact insulting. Any typical high school teacher, no matter the subject area they teach, will come into contact with anywhere from 180 to as many as 360 DIFFERENT students, in the course of a school year. We take that opportunity to have an impact seriously. That's at least 90, to as many as 180+ days of being together. Good teachers are teachers first, and coaches second...no one does any of this to get rich, you are very accurate with that. Coaching stipends being sadly low, keeps reminding us of that reality too. Just one reason why good coaches are getting out of coaching (along with impossible parents, kids' not as readily being willing to being coached, and many other reasons). But to say a Head Football coach should be appropriated & compensated on an administrative pay scale, is misguided. Not sure there is any good answer to this issue, but that won't fly.
cincifbfan
Well-known member
You are absolutely correct. Most coaches, especially Coach Parker, only seemingly cares and has an true impact on the superstar athletes. They don't have any impact on the 3rd string Guard. They don't have an impact on the kid that will never see the field on Friday nights. If these coaches wanted to make an impact, they would develop the players in house, that are actually a part of their program instead of hitting the portal each offseason.
This is quite seriously one of the most moronic statements I've ever heard, and makes your case even worse. Administrators don't have any impact on kids individually. Nobody grows up and says, "Wow, that high school principal absolutely changed my life."
Well, sports and clubs are indeed completely separate. Performing ars are co-curricular. If sports weren't separate, then you would have football as an actual class during the day. And you would get a grade for playing a sport.
You do have performing arts during the day (art, band, drama classes). Sports and academics are not interdependent. The academics don't need sports at all, plenty of schools have little to no sports. Sports don't need academics, if they did, then the entire club/AAU sports industry wouldn't exist.
Yes there definitely are. And there are even more non-athletes who become wonderful people with fantastic careers because of the lessons they learn in school.
Look, this isn't about being anti-sports or anti-football. But sports and football are indeed extra-curriculars and to claim that a football coach has more of an impact on lives than an algebra teacher is just not accurate, unless the football coach is also teaching a full load of classes like he should be. This is about separating needs and wants for a district that is having major financial issues because the district administration is spending money that they don't have on things that they don't need. I mean the fields that they are upgrading aren't even 10 years old. It was 2016 when they built not 1 but 2 baseball stadiums (I know of no other school that has 2 beautiful baseball stadiums) and softball stadium. I believe the turf and track were redone then too. Princeton also has a dozen or so tennis courts and 2 grass fields. What am I missing that is so sorely NEEDED (not wanted). 22 million dollars is a ludicrous dollar amount to spend on athletic facilities, especially when you spent millions on the facilities less than a decade ago. And the bleachers aren't being touched, so the question I have and all the taxpayers should have is...... What in this project is costing so much money? And to take on debt to do it is even more fiscally irrisponsible. Is Princeton saying that they cannot adequately maintain their shiny new stuff and that a decade of use is all one can expect before it needs to be redone again?
Again, this isn't an attack on athletics. This is an attack on wreckless spending. This entire project is dumb. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Princeton's athletic facilities. If there was, they wouldn't host big time playoff games or other major events.
ArnoldRothstien
Active member
ArnoldRothstien
Active member
Saw its middle of the pack. GMC is all middle of the pack.
93 red ls
Well-known member
That's a REALLY weird take..... and a BIG reason why the world is the way it is today....
Byron Hadley
Active member
Disagree totally.
Kids notice teachers who coach and supervise and do extra curriculars, as opposed tot he teachers that leave at the bell every day
93 red ls
Well-known member
That's the great thing about the internet , we can agree to disagree.
FootballPsychGuy
Active member
maybe those teachers that leave "@ the bell", as you say, have family responsibilities, or even a 2nd job to get to. Pretty myopic to make assumptions with this, eh?
cincifbfan
Well-known member
The kids that really notice are only the kids that are coached or supervised by those staff members. Most kids have no idea who is in charge of what extracurriculars. If that coach is teaching, the kids notice.....especially if they are mailing it in during the season and not teaching much of anything (not all coaches are like this, there are more than a few unfortunately).
This is wrong as I am a former Catholic school teacher who taught six classes in two different subjects. You have no idea how much work dedicated teachers put into their classes. I was working 7 days a week on teaching duties by preparing lessons, grading papers, writing quizzes and tests, and designing new lab experiments. I had about 120 students that I saw everyday and I was doing another 3-4 hours of work on week nights after being at school from 8am until 4:30pm each weekday. Weekends were for catching up on grading, preparing lessons, and putting grades into the computer. I am sure the football coach works really hard too during the season but dedicated teachers are really busy during the whole school year. Finally, sports are an extracurricular activity and yes they can help kids learn life lessons as you mentioned. However, some athletes are not well behaved at times in class and I agree with cincyfootball fan that at some schools it is the athletes that get preferential treatment in not facing punishment because they are star football players.
CardinalsFan
Well-known member
-CardinalsFan
warriorblue
Well-known member
You are absolutely correct. Most coaches, especially Coach Parker, only seemingly cares and has an true impact on the superstar athletes. They don't have any impact on the 3rd string Guard. They don't have an impact on the kid that will never see the field on Friday nights. If these coaches wanted to make an impact, they would develop the players in house, that are actually a part of their program instead of hitting the portal each offseason.
To say Coach Parker ONLY cares about his superstar athletes is a very ridiculous statement. He truly cares and loves his players. He and his wife have taken kids into their home because a kids were in need.. Spending time and resources to better the lives of the young men he coaches. I have seen Coach Parker and his staff do this at Winton Woods as well as Princeton.
To say Coach Parker ONLY cares about his superstar athletes is a very ridiculous statement. He truly cares and loves his players. He and his wife have taken kids into their home because a kids were in need.. Spending time and resources to better the lives of the young men he coaches. I have seen Coach Parker and his staff do this at Winton Woods as well as Princeton.
My best friend who is an English teacher at a high school is married to a head foootball coach at a large school with a strong football program. She will be the first to say that she has the easier job with less hours. Their high school has over 200 kids in the football program across three levels and he manages 2 dozen coaches plus additional staff for equipment, film etc. he oversees the youth program in that community, several camps in the summer plus all year round strength and conditions. In addition to planning all games, camps, practices and meetings he also spends countless hours a week helping his kids get recruited to play at the next level and making sure they have all the equipment they need plus watches film every day. It should be a paid position especially at a large private school where the success of the football program drives donor support and it impacts so many young men!
LS92
Well-known member
Only because you said she is an English teacher, I suspect she'd say she has the easier job with fewer hours.
/ducksLHS WRESTLING
Well-known member
Have you been inside of the Princeton football locker room /Princeton football stadium (multiple locker rooms) lately? . Obviously not. They are over 40 to 50 years old my friend.
Mice, Mice &*^% in the lockers, NO central air and no ventilation, chipped paint, leaky roofs, inadequate restrooms, just to name a few of the issues....
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Agree on Locker Rooms, field Turf is 20 years old, concessions stand also out dated and small .