From Leo M. Bulavkom, Secretary, Save Harford County Swimming, Inc
To the Editor:
In recent coverage of the Harford County Board of Education’s proposal to cut interscholastic swimming from the budget, The Aegis left the impression that the decision to save swimming resulted in doubling the “Pay to Play” fee from $50 to $100. This is, quite simply, inaccurate.
Yes, there was a suggestion by one board member, Mr. Voskhul, as justification for his motion to keep part of the program intact – that increasing “Pay to Play” may defray some of the swimming costs. However, after discussing the recollections of several attendees of the Board of Education meeting, and reinforced by detailed review of the board proceedings, the story portrayed by The Aegis is incomplete.
It was apparent to all parties present that Pay to Play was going to be increased – there appeared little way around that action. Additionally, Pay to Play fee increases weren’t just restricted to swimming, or to all other athletic programs – the fees were imposed on high school drama programs as well.
Your reporting failed to fully explain that the Pay to Play fees collected were not returned to their respective programs, but instead collected into a general fund and distributed to whatever program the Board saw fit to fund. The fallout of your incomplete reporting caused resentment between the involved programs, misunderstanding in the community, and resulted in students involved in this effort being harassed or bullied by students in other athletic programs, with them accusing the swimming participants as being responsible for Pay to Play fees being increased for all programs.
We would urge The Aegis — specifically, David Anderson, who has written repeatedly on this issue — to correct and clarify the story. The swimming community, as well as all extracurricular organizations under HCPS, appreciate the attention brought on our mission by The Aegis, and it is our hope that the reporting is full and complete.
Sincerely,
Leo M. Bulavko
Secretary
Save Harford County Swimming, Inc
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The Aegis failed to publish this letter. However, at a fundraising event conducted at Looney’s in Bel Air on August 7th, Mr. David Anderson of The Aegis spoke to my son, Joshua Bulavko, the President of Save Harford County Swimming — apologized for the misunderstanding, and put off the impression left in the article as an editorial decision made by his leadership at the paper. No public acknowledgement of an error was made.
We trust that The Dagger will fairly and completely report on the continuing story of Pay to Play, specifically: how the fee was imposed on athletic programs, then was subsequently increased; and how the fee was imposed on drama programs.
Continuing on that last issue, at last night’s Board of Education meeting, Mr. Fitzpatrick, in his comments opposing placing discussion of Pay to Play on drama programs on the agenda, acknowledged that the Board did not due its due diligence before imposing the fee, stating that the Board needed to gather more facts before opening up full discussion on whether to rescind or modify the fee. The time to research facts was before voting to impose the fee, not months down the road.
The members of Safe Harford County Swimming stand in partnership with the Harford County Arts and Culture Alliance in urging the Board of Education to rescind Pay to Play fees. As quoted several times during last night’s public comments, Mr. Voskuhl, Vice President of the Board, stated in 2014 that Pay to Play should not be a “quick fix” for the budget. We agree with Mr. Voskuhl, and add our voices to the thousands who – in person and by email – urge that the Pay to Play fees be rescinded. There are other cost savings measures that can be undertaken without imposing additional hardship on the families of Harford County.
Leo M. Bulavko
Secretary
Save Harford County Swimming, Inc
A friend of mine who worked in a position that required her to interface with the media quite often informed me of the fact that the media already has their “angle” on the story decided BEFORE they ever interview anyone, and that the interview simply serves as a way for the “reporter” to get a quote or soundbite that can be spun in such a way to lend credibility to the story they have already decided to publish. It’s a shame that this method of “reporting” has apparently filtered down to the local level.
It’s funny how the media has decided not to dig into WHY, with HarCo population growing over the past many decades, and with seemingly MORE tax revenue being collected over those decades, they now need to make parents or kids PAY for school-sponsored sports? I guess that sort of investigation would require too much effort. Better to go for the low-hanging fruit. Blame it on swimming…..it’s all their fault.
I thought the casino’s and lottery were to help with schools and education program?
Nope. That’s what they WANTED you to think at the time to get the votes to approve gambling. They said the money would go to education which is true but they worded it so you’d believe it was ADDITIONAL money when they fully intended to snatch an equal amount of existing education funding for pet projects. Aren’t politicians wonderful people?
Pay to play is about raising the free and reduced meals numbers. Hcps gets millions from the government for farms the more you have the more you get. They raised the fee hoping to double their farms numbers time will tell. I garuntee that those with financial difficulties aren’t doing as many activities now.
Shame on the board of education for upholding the drama fee, which has been exposed as an unfair sham with zero money coming back to drama productions. Instead, who knows where the money collected goes? A board member tried to defend the drama fees at the last meeting as a “revenue stream.” This was very crass and uncaring to the students. Other board members admitted that no thought had gone into the drama fee but claimed more information was needed before they could vote. But they really have all the informtion they need. In fact, many HCPS employees from the central office who had the facts were right in the room! Several board members who initially voted for the fee also tried to save face at the last meeting by voting to add the subject to the agenda. This should have been done months ago. Why did these members not ask for information during the meeting? The board should vote to rescind this fee now.
If you want to “save swimming” and get rid of “pay to play”, which are merely symptoms of a bigger problem, you need to focus your attention on the source of the symptoms: the funding of the HCPS budget and its spending priorities. HCPS has asked for significantly more money than it has been given every year for nearly 10 years. You can agree or disagree with their need for more money, but because the leadership in HCPS has not been given the money they feel they need, they have made decisions to reduce their spending in certain areas. That includes ,in my opinion, significantly bigger issues than the cutting of swimming and pay to play. Because of their decisions with regard to employee salaries, HCPS cannot fill many teaching positions with full time, certified teachers. And those numbers are growing, not shrinking. Your concerns are obviously real and I can appreciate your efforts. However, if the citizens of this county directed their efforts at the bigger problem and not the symptoms of it, we would not have to continue returning here year after year to address them. Focus your efforts on speaking out against the atrocious decisions to keep Joppatowne High School open, which is barely at 50% capacity. There are even discussions to construct a new High School there. Speak out against the construction of the new Harve de Grace Middle and High school, which have current buildings that are also significantly under capacity. These funding priorities, among others, are what drive decisions to cut swimming and increase pay to play, but more importantly are drastically reducing the quality of instruction in HCPS. Our best teachers and administrators have left or are leaving this county. Unfortunately they are replaced by, at best, only those individuals that couldn’t find a job in another school system or, at worst, not filled or filled by individuals that are not qualified to fill the vacancies.