Dropping athletics will create more issues for Bonners

Have you ever been grit-your-teeth mad about something? Some folks in the northern-most county of Idaho – Boundary – have me so mad my fingers can hardly type straight.

My state of irritation pales compared to the frustration of at least 1,220 voters in Boundary – the ones who voted yes on a maintenance and operation levy that failed by a measly 82 votes. As a result, the Boundary school board must hack nearly $1 million out of its budget.

Among the many casualties will be athletics and extracurricular activities for grades 7-12 in Bonners Ferry.

School officials said they can’t afford to keep sports and assorted activities and pay to bus children to a couple of far-flung schools in the district. I throw that statement back to them: You can’t afford not to.

Fast forward to the summer of 2006 after a school year without activities. A year without sports and the like means the crime rate will soar, the dropout rate will climb, teen pregnancies will increase, alcohol consumption will rise and depression will hit epidemic proportions. Shocking? Yes.

In the midst of apparent gloom comes a ray of optimism. Ron Smith, chairman of the county commission and a longtime high school booster, believes the community will rally to salvage athletics.

“I guarantee we’ll save activities,” Smith said in a telephone interview Saturday.

Three days later, though, Smith had backed off slightly from his guarantee. It seems Smith had succumbed to the possibility that fund raising more than $200,000 to save activities could fall short.

It’s difficult trying to justify salvaging athletics when several jobs would be lost with the closure of outlying schools. Imagine a first-grader who currently rides a bus 8 miles to school having a trip four times that distance one way in the middle of winter.

Are there any answers?

“I have no clue,” said 19-year head wrestling coach Conrad Garner. “There are so many Pandora’s boxes. On one hand, you want to raise $250,000 to save activities. But then you face closing three elementary schools. We’re between a rock and a hard spot. I figured the (levy) could be close, but I never anticipated this. It’s really, really ugly. It’s just not athletics that could be lost. We’re facing big losses in other ways, too. The whole community is going to suffer.”

Garner, mind you, wants to at least save athletics. But he’s sympathetic to all the concerns the district faces. He suspects that dozens upon dozens of students would drop out because athletics are the only thing that keep them showing up for classes each day.

One of the school’s top student/athletes, junior Adam Hall, gave a speech at an emergency board meeting convened six days after the levy failed. Hall, who carries a 3.8 grade-point average, has won 77 straight wrestling matches, including two state and two Tri-State titles, since losing in the state final his freshman year.

Hall will land a combination of academic and athletic scholarships to college next year. Ivy League schools and Stanford are among his early suitors. But he wants to finish his prep career at BF.

“People don’t understand what this town would turn into without sports or extracurricular activities,” Hall said. “I’d estimate that 85 percent to 90 percent of our students are in some kind of activities.”

Educators frequently ask students to make the right choices. It’s time for the adults to look in the mirror and do the same.

Eliminate activities and the next levy Boundary County voters will be asked to float is one to build an extension at the county jail for all the juvenile delinquents.

Boundary County residents have no choice at this point. They must step to the plate for their youth. They’re worth it.