Hi Chris,
Thank you for taking the time to meet with me today!
I understand that you're supportive of our goal of independently operating the finances of the cross country and track and field programs so that we can maintain access to the programs, improve them, and improve the efficiency and transparency of their finances. I also understand that you don't think that you have the authority to approve this change on behalf of the school and that Charen Yu may have the authority, unless it would contradict a board policy. Please let me know if I misunderstood anything about your position.
I would love to schedule a meeting with Charen as soon as possible, hopefully Thursday when Paige (cc'd) and I are both available. If you have time today, would you please send the introductory email? If not, I'll write to her directly to try to get on her calendar, cc'ing you, and I would appreciate your chiming in to endorse the value of our meeting with her.
Thank you!
Tom
Hi all,
We, along with several other volunteer parent coaches, have been coaching the JLS cross country and track and field programs. Despite our sports providing the city's middle school athletics (MSA) program with a large amount of revenue ($50,585 last year alone from 151 registrations), we have been receiving minimal (or perhaps negative) support from the city's MSA program. We plan and run our practices and meets independently, this year receiving only some replacement jerseys (which the city initially failed to order), a small amount of equipment, and some coverage for practices when one of our coaches broke her leg (though we later found out that the athletic director covering the throws practice had been leaving the athletes unsupervised). The city's MSA program has been budgeting 65% of their $403,155 annual budget to compensate one and a fraction full-time city employees (Chris Roman and Adam Howard) and one athletic director for each school, and they have refused to fund small requests from us including painting a finish line and other markings at the Cubberley track and paying for an end-of-year party so that we wouldn't have to scrounge additional money from parents.
We will be forming an organization, independent from the city of Palo Alto, to manage registration and finances for these two JLS sport teams. This will allow us to spend money in ways that benefit the roughly 10% of JLS students who participate in cross country and/or track and field, including ideas such as improving the Cubberley facility, training coaches, paying coaches, and paying meet officials. We will also be more transparent in our finances, not raise registration fees, and likely lower them. We hope that our organization will help improve all of PAUSD middle school sports, either by additional teams joining our organization or PAUSD or the city using our organization as a model for how to improve.
We ideally wanted to meet in person with the relevant PAUSD decision maker before forming our organization, but we are running out of time. We have been trying over the last month to find the right person and schedule a meeting with them, but we have not yet been able to do so, and we need to move forward before cross country registration is scheduled to happen on 8/16. We appreciate the support we have received from many of you: JLS Principal Chris Grierson's support for our plan when I met with him on 6/14; Jen, Beti, Peter, and Judy's efforts to try to help me schedule meetings when I came in person to JLS and the district office four times; and PAUSD CBO Carolyn Chow's support for our efforts by email on 6/20. I have requested a meeting with Charen for the week of 7/8, and we would be happy to meet with any of you to discuss this further, but given your vacation schedules, our travel schedules (e.g. I will be traveling next week), and the slow progress so far, we need to move forward with our planning in the meantime.
If any of you have any concerns or questions about our plans, please let us know. In particular, if any of you know whether the city has a contract with PAUSD granting them exclusive rights to collect revenue for middle school sports, please let us know. If they do, we hope that we will be able to convince them to release PAUSD from that obligation.
We expect to receive the same level of support from JLS and PAUSD that the MSA program has received, including (if necessary) confirming with the Art David Athletic League that ours are the official JLS teams and providing us access to school facilities like the small gym room that we used for high jump practice last year. Please let us know if any of you have any concerns about providing us with such support.
Thank you!
Tom Haxton, Paige Cook, and Frank Fan
Hi Everyone,
My apologies for this mass email, but I am concerned that there has been a misunderstanding. When Tom Haxton and I met, I recommended he work with the City of Palo Alto, as well as connect with Carolyn and Charen. Below is an email that I recently shared with Mr. Haxton to clarify my opinions on this topic.
Thank you,
-Chris
Hi Tom,
Thank you for meeting with me to explain your interest in expanding Middle School Athletics. I'm sorry for my delayed response to several of your messages; I took some time off to be with my family.
I want to clarify a few things from our meeting on June 14 and your summary. I do support your working with the city to bring transparency around the money raised for Middle School Athletics and how dollars are spent, and I appreciate your advocacy for expanding and improving the experiences of our students, but I don't recommend you independently operate the finances of this program. As I mentioned when we met, I was concerned about how setting up a system like this could create inequities across all middle school sports (and school sites in Palo Alto), and potentially become divisive. I have seen situations where boosters of different sports programs have had to compete for fundraising within the same community and it can become very disruptive. I would hate for that to happen here.
I remember saying that I would set up an introductory meeting with you and Carolyn Chow (our out-going CBO) and Charen Yu (our incoming CBO) to get more clarity around the partnership between PAUSD and Middle School Athletics. Thank you for reaching out to them on June 15 and June 20, and including Guillermo Lopez, to request a meeting.
I know that with the summer season, people are traveling and communications can be delayed. After reading through different email strands about this topic, I see that you are planning to meet with Charen Yu and Guillermo Lopez in July. Thank you for keeping me in the loop.
I have looked through our Board Policies and Administrative Regulations, and I haven't found anything about Middle School Athletics, aside from Board Meeting Minutes about the longstanding partnership between PAUSD and the City of Palo Alto.
Given the amount of time that has passed since our meeting and the additional email communications that have gone out, I will copy and paste this message into other stands to inform the other people who are involved in addressing this inquiry.
Thank you,
Chris Grierson, JLS Principal
Phone: (650) 856-5188 x5495
Hi Chris,
Thank you for your reply.
Yes, your reply is different from what I heard from you in our 6/14 meeting, which I summarized as follows in an email to you later that day: "I understand that you're supportive of our goal of independently operating the finances of the cross country and track and field programs so that we can maintain access to the programs, improve them, and improve the efficiency and transparency of their finances. I also understand that you don't think that you have the authority to approve this change on behalf of the school and that Charen Yu may have the authority, unless it would contradict a board policy. Please let me know if I misunderstood anything about your position."
I hear your concern about inequity. Our mission is to provide a better experience for middle school student athletes than what is available to them from the COP MSA program. If we cannot do that, we will stop operating. As I mentioned earlier, we hope that any inequity that our organization creates in the positive direction will raise all ships in one of three ways: we will be open to additional teams in the district joining our organization, the COP MSA may use our organization as a model of how to improve their program, or PAUSD may use our organization as a model for how to manage middle school sports more effectively without outsourcing to the city.
I hear your concern about competing for fundraising, but I don't think that is relevant in our case, because middle school sports are funded through registration fees, not fundraising. The COP MSA program has been entirely funded through registration fees, and in fact had a $24,190 profit last year after spending $260,953 on compensation for full-time city staff and athletic directors. We also plan to be entirely funded through registration fees.
Please let us know if you have any further questions or concerns. Again, we would be happy to discuss this with any of you in person or on the phone.
Thanks!
Tom
Mr. Haxton,
Thank you for the email.
I recommend you refrain from messaging the community or PAUSD staff about potential plans for a middle school athletics program or an alternative to what is currently in place, as we do not plan on making any changes.
No plans have been discussed or agreed upon by me, Ms. Yu, or other PAUSD district staff to give the impression that plans are in place for middle school athletics.
We will have a conversation when we meet.
Thank you in advance for your understanding on this matter.
Hi Mr. Lopez,
Thank you for your email.
I didn't intend to describe any plans that PAUSD has. I'm discussing what we, the volunteer parent coaches who have been independently operating JLS's cross country and track and field programs with minimal support from the city, are planning to do in what we strongly believe to be in the best interest of our student athletes. I understand that there is a lot of context that you don't yet have, so I don't expect you to have a strong opinion at the moment, but I hope that you will accept us once you more fully understand what we're doing and why we're doing it. I'm looking forward to talking with you about it on 7/10.
Thanks!
Tom
Mr. Haxton,
As mentioned in my previous email, PAUSD does not plan to explore having middle school athletics as this is a city program. Any issues or instances involving athletic programs with volunteer parent coaches must be addressed between the city and your group. We do not want to give the impression that we are considering this matter, nor do we wish to engage in discussions about city-run sports. Therefore, we will cancel the meeting scheduled for 7/10, as our position is final.
Thank you.
Dear Mr. Lopez and cc Superintendent Austin,
Thank you for your reply. Of course that is extremely disappointing.
Would you please tell me who is taking responsibility for the decision to not even discuss this with us? Is it you or the superintendent? If it is you, is there a process by which we can escalate that decision to the superintendent?
(Superintendent Austin, for your context, I had been trying to align with PAUSD in our 7/10 meeting and with Jim Geers, President of the ADAL league, before writing to the city, but Jim shared our plans with the city, so I wrote the initial email on this thread to fill them in.)
Thank you!
Tom
Dear Mr. Haxton,
Thank you for your continued interest and advocacy for middle school athletics in our community. While I am out of town for a few weeks, I have followed the chain of emails. Although this is not something I would typically touch, I want to take this single opportunity to clarify PAUSD's position and our relationship with the City of Palo Alto's Middle School Athletics (MSA) program.
First, let me address a potential misunderstanding. The MSA program is operated entirely by the City of Palo Alto, not by PAUSD. This arrangement has been in place for over a decade and has generally served our community well. PAUSD does not manage, fund, or oversee the city's recreational athletic programs, including the selection of coaches, registration processes, or the provision of scholarships for those who cannot afford the fees, number of available spots, scheduling, or transportation.
Given this structure, any concerns or suggestions regarding the MSA program should be directed to the City of Palo Alto. Our district staff, including Dr. Lopez, Ms. Yu, and myself, do not have the authority or involvement to make changes to the city's programs. As such, there is no need for meetings with PAUSD staff regarding this matter.
While I appreciate your enthusiasm and dedication to enhancing the athletic experiences for our students, it is essential to maintain clear boundaries and understanding of our respective roles. Engaging in discussions about city-managed sports programs falls outside of PAUSD's purview and responsibilities.
I hope this clarification helps. Please direct any further questions or concerns regarding the MSA program to the appropriate contacts within the City of Palo Alto.
Sincerely,
Dr. Don Austin
Superintendent
Palo Alto Unified School District
Dear Dr. Austin,
Thank you for taking the time to read our emails and reply, and thank you for appreciating our enthusiasm and dedication.
We understand that you do not intend to reply further, but we will still address your statements in case it helps you understand our position. We think that this email exchange is highlighting the value that a live conversation would bring.
Our middle school sports programs are actually not operated by the City of Palo Alto in the way that you describe. Speaking specifically for JLS cross country and track and field and focusing on the aspects of management that you highlighted:
Fund: the city does not fund our teams. Last year this is how the $50,585 in registration fees generated by our teams were spent (math here):
8.1% went to profit for the city of Palo Alto
After taking out this profit:
95% of funding went to overhead: compensation for two city of Palo Alto employees and our athletic director, none of whom provide our teams with meaningful services, as discussed below
3.6% went to jerseys and supplies for our teams
0.7% covered our share of liability insurance
0.6% covered our share of league fees
Despite 95% of our after-profit revenue going to compensate the city of Palo Alto employees and our athletic director, they do not meaningfully manage our programs:
Selection of coaches: the city does not select our coaches. All of our coaches are parents. We recruit parents to join us and replace us if and when we stop coaching as our children age out. We accept all parents who are willing to help. The majority of our coaches have no or minimal experience in our sports, and we have no resources other than our own time for training them.
Oversee: the city does not oversee our programs.
They do not coach. When one of our volunteer parent coaches broke her leg, the city did agree to supervise some long jump and throws practices. However, even after we had stressed the importance of having adult supervision especially for throws practice for safety reasons, we later found out that the city employee had been leaving our students athletes unattended at throws practice.
They do not observe our competitions or practices.
They do not oversee how we design practice schedules, coaching assignments, practice plans, or meet entries.
They do not oversee how we officiate at meets and compile results for the league’s sectional championships.
They do not oversee how we keep our student athletes and families motivated and informed with summarized highlights from our competitions.
They do not oversee our end of season celebration.
Transportation: the city does not oversee transportation. We coaches organize carpool sign-ups and drive athletes to our competitions.
Scheduling: the city does not oversee scheduling.
The league sets our competition schedule. If the city provides feedback on that schedule, they do so without soliciting feedback from coaches and without noticing obvious conflicts with the JLS calendar.
When a track a field meet was scheduled at the same time as the CMEA music festival, presenting numerous conflicts with Greene and JLS students, we created our own dual meet from scratch, coordinating with Greene coaches and Gunn high school administrators, soliciting meet entries, compiling heat sheets, officiating the meet, and compiling results, none of this with any oversight from the city.
We coaches set our practice schedule with no oversight from the city.
The arrangement with the city is not serving our community well.
We are not asking you to make changes to the city’s MSA program.
We are asking you to support PAUSD’s student athletes by accepting our teams, including supporting them in their desire to represent their school at league competitions.
Sincerely,
Tom and Paige