A unique experiment in community involvement took place this past school year at Salem School.
Faced with the cutting of all extracurricular athletics and clubs from the budget due to a tight budget, community members took on the unprecedented step of funding and organizing those activities on a volunteer basis outside of the formal district structure.
The result was the Salem Booster Club, which successfully retained every sport and club that had been offered by the school in the past and even added some activities.
I recently sat down with club President John Philippi to record his reflections on how the club’s first year went and what is before it now. I also spoke with Salem School District administrator David Milz about how the arrangement worked from the school’s perspective. Here are some excerpts of those interviews.
Here is Philippi’s assessment of how the booster club experiment worked out:
Here’s Milz on the same question:
Some of the toughest challenges were presented by the fact the booster club had no blueprint to follow. Nothing like it had been done before. Here Philippi addresses how that worked with the Westosha Athletics Conference:
Running clubs and sports with an outside organization meant having to work around the teacher’s contract, which included language addressing the advisor and coaching positions:
So what’s next for the Salem Booster Club?:
Will the School Board ever fund sports and clubs again? Philippi and Milz give their opinions:
Hi Boosters! Great Videos!! Lengthy but something to be proud of!!
Good job on your first completed school year..Looking forward to our families
first year attending your school district..
Fondly,
Mel Rudd