Greetings! Thanks to Annie Young for the information on the joint meeting of the School and Park Boards. Also thanks to the people that responded to my original post.
Here are my continuing thoughts: 1. Is it possible to get a link or an electronic copy of Mac Boston's report? Ms. Boland do you know of any methods to obtain that report? 2. Mr. Schapiro's synopsis of the Boston report is very helpful. 3. I was hoping to keep my thoughts to the Park Board and the way that the current facilities are managed, maintained and used, but I will take some time to comment more on the Mpls Public Schools and the Park Board athletics. As the Park Board and the Schools get together to discuss the middle school sports issue I will be interested to see if the Park Board all inclusive mentality - All kids get to play, has any problems with the middle school tryout and cut philosophy. Other issues that would affect a change in middle school sports is coaching. Is there money to fund coaches at the Park Board level? Does the Mpls PS which now fund coaches at middle schools, pay for coaching at Park Board? Do we even want to pay coaches and continue in the Park Board tradition of using volunteer coaches? Oh the questions are many!!! I would like to end by addressing the comments made by Mr. Dean Carlson who is going to have his 7 year old son play baseball in Richfield this summer. Mr. Carlson I completely understand your reasoning and when your son turns 9 I hope that we can lure you back to play on our traveling baseball team. But Mr. Carlson does point out that because the Park Board has had the policy that all kids participate regardless of skill, we have denied the kids with greater ability or desire to be a better player the opportunity to improve or to play against better competition. I do agree with the Park Board policy. We should have a place for any kid that wants to play. That opportunity should be a well coached, fundamentally sound experience. However, we cannot continue to ignore the fact that parents are seeking the best for their kids. I leave you with this thought. If parents continue to find athletic opportunities in other communities how much of an influence is that to then enroll them in that communities schools? Thank you all for reading, Rick Kuhlmann Hale-Page-Diamond Lake _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
