A few days later, the new principal gets settled in his new office. Glen makes his morning announcement:
"I am your new principal, Glen Watkins. During the holidays, the previous principal, Robert Mayer, died as well as the previous football head coach. Reforms are coming soon, especially as it relates to sports. To mark the new beginning of the school, we will announce the change in the school's team name, effective next school year" Glen speaks in the PA system, before he lays out the terms and conditions of what is to become a town-wide contest. "The contest for the school's new team name will feature one entry per person, and entrants must supply a name, written in the new school's colors, as well as a logo. The deadline is next Friday, at which point the entries will be put to an online vote for the rest of the month"
Even though most students are indifferent to what these reforms would actually imply, unlike the teachers, the students waste no time coming up with ideas for team names and logos. For sure they want original names so it would stand out from the rest of the district and even the state.
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Some of the more visual arts-oriented kids even compare their logo designs as well as the colors between one another. In addition, they tend to pick the school colors based upon the logo they design.
"Look at this brightly colored logo!" one of the students in the race shows the design, depicting a book with a fluorescent purple cover and lime green teeth protruding from the cover page.
"Yeah, the old colors were a little... drab" Dexter, a junior, tells his fellow classmate. Way more white than wine red, and Bulldogs were a common name. Venomous Agendas? Now that's a name everyone in town will remember us for! Dexter thinks, while he realizes something important about the name. "And, of course, it's... gender-neutral"
Little does his father realize is that other students have good ideas but won't stand out as much. Including but not limited to Florence's; Flo is known to the sophomore class as the resident graphist and considered by many in the student body as a frontrunner in the early stages of the contest.
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When the faculty meeting is held at lunchtime, many a teacher in attendance have questions regarding the direction Glen intends to take the school going forward, starting with the short term.
"Esteemed faculty, let it be known that the budget of the football team will be cut since it's the single largest area I identified as wasteful spending under my predecessor. We might not have the resources to properly implement multi-tracking outside of AP coursework whenever applicable, and we still won't after the cuts to the football team, but to me it's a step in the right direction, especially with the money from the resulting cuts planned to be used in funding new instructional materials. This team will be down to three coaches total" Glen explains the first phase of the plan.
Is the principal sure the booster club and the local community would support the Bulldogs thick and thin and make up the difference for cutting institutional football funding? Warren, a biology teacher and the school's quiz bowl coach, wonders how the public will understand the cuts to the football team. Budget cuts will definitely make it harder for us to be competitive on the gridiron. On the other hand, the quiz bowl team receives Title IX funding from the parish because of Marcia, as do the math team because of 2 girls (Éliane and Geneviève).
The plan raises a lot of questions among the faculty, some of whom fears the reactions of the parents, and others believe that the local community would realize then that they are living vicariously through the sports teams. Then Glen will be left wondering if the town is truly a captive audience for the football team as his predecessor assumed.
"In parallel, I say that we should float the idea that sports scholarships are not a viable way to get into college" an English teacher then tells the other teachers.
"As far as I'm concerned, I say that sports would allow some kids to remain in school who would otherwise drop out, especially since there has been a wave of early retirements in some places around the parish" the PE teacher then warns the principal.
"Funding for off-season clinics and camps must also be eliminated as well for all sports" Trent, a math teacher and the mathletics team coach, proposes, knowing that football and basketball are the only two sports for which there has been any expenditures on off-season clinics and camps at this school for which school funds have been used. "But I urge you to consider keeping as many kids as possible playing. If people drop out, you know how much funding we lose because of that"
"Cutting coaches, cutting clinics and camps, but not the whole sport. It makes no sense to provide only one-way transportation, as some other schools in this region did, because getting an empty bus back to town isn't free, so if you're going to cut transportation, do so on weekends" a social studies teacher implores the principal about transportation.
"The problem is that band lives off the coattails of the sports teams. Plus, as Trent here said, we still want to maximize the number if kids playing. With that said, I hope that band will be given some consideration" the music teacher then urges the principal to consider band as part of the recipients from the sports money.
"We don't want students to hog the sports teams spots, so what about students can be on one sports team for free but pay to play on any subsequent team?" another language arts teacher asks her colleagues.
"In that case I say the cheapest of the teams will be the one students will play on for free, and the more expensive ones will be billed at the end of the year" the principal tells the other teachers.
"With all due respect, your plan requires too much work, but students should be made to pay for the uniforms" another social studies teacher then retorts. "Or the booster club if the town's residents still care about sports"
Glen is busy estimating the savings made by the teachers' suggestions, to the extent he feels these suggestions can be implemented. He makes these estimates, knowing that no sport can be cut, but saving on busing on weekends would mean the parents would have to chauffeur their kids around. Cutting the number of football coaches to 3 would mean cutting about $10k saved, $25k for clinics and camps, but weekend transportation isn't nearly as big a deal as the social studies teacher was implying. Uniforms, on the other hand, must be replaced anyway, especially since the contest to change the school colors and team name is underway and this season will be the last under our current name. The next season will be the next one with the new name, but helmet reconditioning will cost us a bit more this year because of the name and color change. And we delayed doing it for this reason.
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Speaking of the team's new name contest, Florence took a little longer to get her design made than Dexter's friend did, but it looks like a stylized computer mainframe. Black and red, the Fighting Servers. While their teachers are arguing about the impending cuts to the athletic department, it appears that the students are oblivious to the goings-on behind closed doors. Even then the rest of the parish faces the same kind of pressure.
"Fighting Servers... it seems that, for all the room IT takes up in our lives, no one even thought of naming a sports team around IT" Florence then explains the rationale for her choice of a team name for her entry to her friends.
"Fighting Servers? Not that this name is cringe per se, it just doesn't inspire the same feelings as Bulldogs could have" Gen asks her classmate.
"Yeah, Bulldogs are too old-fashioned, we need something fresh" Marcia adds to this comment.
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The heated discussions between the faculty and the principal continue, realizing it's over $50k the school could save for next season. Just cutting the football team's budget is not sufficient; football's social profile needs to diminish also. Currently football is making our kids neglect their studies for about a third of the year, not just the players but also everyone else around them. So we can always have a team for the heck of it, but there are two stages to get the town to deemphasize sports: step 1: bleed sports dry, and step 2: have an academic team perform at a high level. I feel like step 2 will be much more difficult to achieve while step 1 is in its early stages, Glen reflects on his plan of action, while also having another idea for fundraising for the school: putting in a link to collect payments for donations to the school once the entries for the team name change are put on a page to vote.
Of course, although he expects donations to come in from around the parish, he does not expect a whole lot since the parish doesn't have that large a population to begin with.
"With only fifty grand, what are the most pressing needs for educational materials? We need to ensure we aren't squandering the football money on frivolous things. Already about two to three thousand is set aside for the debate team, and we all know the benefits, but we don't have that big of an interest for it" Glen explains his plan to the faculty.
"We need to replace science textbooks and lab equipment" Warren pleads with the principal. "They're way outdated and do not meet the standards so we're forced to rely on costly handouts with lengthy errata to make up the gaps"
"Social studies too" the social studies teacher then pleads his case.
"And we need to make up the musical instruments' maintenance backlog!" the music teacher adds to this chorus of complaints.
The cheapest way to get Step 2 done is mathletics, provided we stick to remotely held competitions, such as the AMC series (AMC12-AIME-USAMO). And hopefully with girls leading the way, Glen muses while he keeps quiet about mathletics. If we do well in mathletics next year, maybe it can inspire others to take math more seriously than in the past.
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But then the teachers, seemingly unable to keep quiet about the impending athletic cuts, leak the proposed plan of athletic cuts to the parish radio, and Glen is summoned to the radio station to defend his actions to the parish public a few days later, knowing he can't do so in person because of lockdowns in the region.
"It appears that rumors of athletic cuts are spreading like wildfire" the radio show host then tells the principal. "Many in the community are wondering what drove these cuts"
"I am Glen, the new principal of the local high school. My predecessor wasted money left and right for sports. But let me be clear: no sport will actually be cut, just that we will no longer be paying for off-season camps. Sports have a place in school, but students benefit more from being given the opportunity to play on a regular basis than from professionalization as pursued under my predecessor. More than ever, our future lies in making sure our students are well-prepared for life after graduation and sports. So we need to make sacrifices now because of the changes in economic realities, which now demand us to consider college more seriously. Let me make that clear: athletic scholarships are not a viable route for college; however, colleges do like some athletic experience"
"What do you mean, athletic scholarships are not a viable route for college?" an angry listener asks on the phone.
"First, athletic scholarships tend to be given out to students for whom it tends to consume their lives, partake in expensive off-season plans and we simply no longer have the resources to develop student-athletes at the required level. And even if we did, only about two percent of students actually get one. The money then saved would be better served by giving them more appropriate resources such as up to date textbooks. We must set the example for the rest of the region and also support our academic teams" the principal answers the angry listener.
Notwithstanding that the local high school has one of only 2 operational quiz bowl teams in southwest Louisiana. Glen is also reminded of the meager Title IX funds the mathletics and quiz bowl teams bring in from the parish. Approximately $800 for both teams combined, or $200 per eligible student (Imélie was counted as being on the math team for Title IX funding purposes, even though she left the math team midway through the season).
"Does that mean my kid will finally get playing time? I believe these measures will cause fewer kids to be able to play" a parent of a would-be player asks the principal.
"I have no say on who gets play time and who doesn't. The past has pushed our entire athletic system to its limits, the world of the future belongs to those who work in class and go on to higher education. After all, we already have Bâton-Rouge paying for one ACT administration per student and please review your child academics against TOPS guidelines, and then prepare for it accordingly. I urge people tuning in to prepare for the ACT so they can secure their future and not squander their state-funded freebie" Glen explains to the audience listening.
Many parents start asking him questions about TOPS, or Taylor Opportunity Program for Students, which is a state-wide merit aid program, and several of them didn't even hear about it at all. Some parents ask about the resources in use for ACT preparation, especially those who are to take it two months from now. Including Dexter.
"You talked about supporting academic teams; why should we have any pride in an academic team's success if we actually get it?" another listener asks him. "How do academic competitions prepare students for life?"
"Quiz bowl is about answering questions from a broad canon under pressure..." Glen goes on to explain the benefits of both teams currently offered and how they translate to life after graduation.
He keeps answering questions from parents for hours, demanding to see where the money would go to. But not even that would be enough to cover the entire backlog of musical instrument maintenance as well as textbook replacement. A dent in these things is better than no headway in his mind, however. Let's say that the response of the public to these cuts have been... mixed even if the cuts were made so that no sport would be cut. Might have somewhat reduced rosters, but it's the best compromise I could reach with the faculty. By now the population know about the existence of the mathletics and quiz bowl teams.
In the meantime, the entries being submitted for the team naming competition keep piling in and the principal has his secretary create an additional webpage to the school's website with the poll, the entries and the donation system, so that donations can be made by any interested party.
Glen doesn't expect much out of donations, but he doesn't suspect anything once the voting system goes live on the school's website. Life goes on, but it's premature to announce which one of the remaining coaches will become the head coach next season since football is not on people's minds at this time of the year.