School Board to Weigh Funding for Varsity Club Sports in Budget Request

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District officials as they finalize a budget request for next year are looking at whether to include stipends for varsity club sports such as squash, skiing and crew.

Board of Education members on Monday said that treating the separate sports fairly means establishing firm criteria in areas such as program history and participation.

“I think it is really important for us to be consistent and I appreciate that we all love the sports that we love,” Secretary Dionna Carlson said at the school board’s meeting, held in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School. “But as a board I think we have to be consistent.”

The comments came as Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi proposed a budget for fiscal year 2016 to the BOE. The full board is scheduled to come back Jan. 20 with possible changes. Once finalized by the school board, the budget request will go the Board of Selectmen, Board of Finance and Town Council.

The board’s discussion Monday follows the New Canaan High School squash team’s strong turnout in November at a school board meeting in which they urged the district to secure $20,000 to pay a coach lest the popular program dissolve.

Sports such as squash, skiing and rowing are not part of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, or CIAC, because not enough public high schools in the state have a team. That often relegates a sport to private funding only in New Canaan, because it means the district’s Athletic Department cannot offer funds, and the bylaws of the New Canaan High School All Sports Booster Club only allow disbursement of funds to CIAC sports, officials say.

School board Vice Chair Scott Gress noted that the squash and ski teams each have a “huge following” and described the ski team as very successful: “They were the state champs, I think, five out of the last six years.”

Gress and board member Sheri West both voiced support for requesting funds for the groups.

Luizzi said he didn’t include funding for groups such as squash in his initial budget proposal for next fiscal year because “they are working to establish themselves” and that the district is helping to nurture them in some ways. The schools chief also said he’s open to discussion and said funding for the varsity club sports “is still an ongoing conversation.”

Luizzi said he would work with Athletic Director Jay Egan to talk through what could be done for the programs and return Jan. 20 with options.

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