Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Garfield meeting
A group of about 70 people crowded into the Garfield school cafeteria Monday night to give input on whether Garfield-Palouse High School should accept a proposal from the Oakesdale district to combine sports.
The meeting was the second of two called by the Garfield and Palouse school boards for public feedback on the matter.
The night in Garfield opened with a few questions about what it would cost in fuel to transport kids to and from practices in Oakesdale.
“I understand that this proposal is broad. It has to be,” said Garfield Elementary/Middle School Superintendent/Principal Zane Wells, indicating that the meeting was about the overall merits of the proposal.
A question then came from the audience about why Oakesdale was in this position, after their 30-year athletic cooperative with Tekoa was dissolved this spring.
“You’d have to ask them,” said Palouse school board president Mike Dymkoski. “I think it boils down to personality conflicts that have somehow caused a long-standing cooperative to unfold. Oakesdale came to us with their hat in hand and simply asked if they can play with us.”
He explained that the Garfield and Palouse school boards have not moved the proposal along since receiving it Nov. 21, but were simply offering it to the public for comment.
Then he gave some insight on what he thought.
“Community identity is important to me,” Dymkoski said. “I’m not eager to be taking on a partner and further dilute the identity of the Garfield-Palouse communities… the only way I’d be in favor of it is if we couldn’t field a team.”
Gar-Pal High School junior Gabe Cocking stood up and said that he and his teammates have been playing together since third grade and know how each other plays.
“I don’t know how they play,” said Cocking, of Oakesdale athletes, before also pointing out the added time in travel with practices in Oakesdale would require.
Wells then reminded the assembly that the deal put forth is flexible.
“This is not an all or nothing proposal,” he said. “We could carve out pieces of it.”
Rules in numbers
John Miller, assistant executive director of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, told the Gazette Tuesday that any league or classification change has to do with student population numbers, which they are assessing right now for the next two years. They will decide on Jan. 8.
In the current breakdown schools or cooperatives with 92 or less students compete in 1B.
Schools or cooperatives with 93 and above compete in 2B. The A classification begins at 208.
The current student-count average as of Nov. 1 for Gar-Pal is 73. Oakesdale is 21, for a total of 94.
If a school falls just past the margin of a classification, a district may appeal to remain in the lower level.
At the meeting in Garfield Monday, a parent said she had asked her Gar-Pal High daughter what she thought and relayed that “the boys don’t want to, the girls do. Just because of the numbers.”
“We need to be neighborly,” she continued. “What if it was Garfield, what if it was Palouse left in this position? Make some mandates; we’re never changing our mascot. I don’t think they would care. They get to play.”
It was then suggested that the proposal could be tried for one year, if allowed by the WIAA.
“Our numbers in sports are not because of a lack of (students), but a lack of participation,” said another citizen in the crowd.
“They are no longer in a co-op they could be in,” said another, referring to Oakesdale. “I am not for this proposal at all.”
Another man in the audience concurred.
“They have a place they could’ve been. So it’s not like we have to be neighborly,” he said.
Participation
problem
It was then asked again why the Tekoa-Oakesdale arrangement dissolved.
“Depends on who you talk to,” said a woman in the audience.
Jake Dingman, superintendent for Oakesdale and Palouse sat at the table up front with the Palouse school board.
He said that Tekoa wanted to stay in the arrangement with Oakesdale but due to personality conflicts, it didn’t work out.
“Can (Oakesdale kids) just choose where to play?” asked another voice in the crowd.
“Yes, but you have to accept their school’s total population,” explained Tim Coles, longtime Gar-Pal High basketball coach and current principal.
The exception is for a sport like wrestling because it’s an individual sport, the kids may train, practice and travel together but they compete for their own school.
“I understand all the consternation over this (proposal),” Coles said. “Well, I do and I don’t, but I want our sports programs to be competitive no matter what. I don’t know why our participation is so low.”
The total population he refers to would likely raise Gar-Pal or Gar-Pal-Oakesdale to 2B level.
“If Gar-Pal’s number (of ninth to 11th graders) was 75 and Oakesdale’s was 25, then their number is 100,” said WIAA’s Miller. “It doesn’t matter how many kids come out for a particular sport.”
He explained that a new Gar-Pal-Oakesdale cooperative could have just one extra player turn out for a sport and that player could still push them up a classification.
“The total enrollments, we still add them all together,” he said.
At the meeting in Garfield, a member of the public suggested what may come if Gar-Pal accepted Oakesdale kids for sports.
“You’re gonna be competing with schools with more than a hundred students more,” he said.
Then a woman spoke up to say that they were all assuming that more kids added would all be athletes.
“It’s just like trying to recruit for a music program. Not every kid is a musician,” she said.
Another woman disagreed saying that kids will come out for things if they are inspired to.
“Look at Colton,” she said. “It’s because they’re engaged. They have the impetus.”
She then addressed Coles.
“Tim, you’ve got 20-plus boys out for basketball. You inspire them. They want to be part of the program.”
Another woman suggested that thin athletic participation at Gar-Pal has brought another facet to this.
“Parents are being bullied,” she said. “Your kid needs to play so my kid has a team.”
Palouse city council member Connie Newman spoke from the audience next.
“We can’t solve a problem if it’s not correctly defined,” she said. “We have a participation problem.”
“Why can’t they just bus their kids down and play?” asked another. “They put their kids in jeopardy, so to speak (by dissolving the T.O. cooperative). But they still want to participate. Bring ‘em down, let ‘em play, but when in Rome, do as the Romans do; fit in with the way the Gar-Pal athletes play.”
While the Oakesdale proposal regards sports, a woman in the audience asked if there might be more to a future proposal.
“How sustainable is the Oakesdale school?” she asked.
“It’s sustainable,” said Dingman, indicating strong enrollment numbers and general maintenance costs on an 80-year-old building. “It’s an athletic request, only.”
“We get to dictate how this is gonna look,” said Robert Lopez, a longtime Palouse coach and community member. “But the kids come first. We are indeed neighbors.”
“Then Oakesdale should have thought of that when they opted out,” responded a man in the back.
“Just let ‘em play, help ‘em out,” said another. “But that doesn’t mean we have to make a rushed decision.”
Mahlon Kreible then stood up to make a different point – about competing on the world market through education.
Noting that he loved football, he also suggested there was a line.
“Two and a half hours a day in sports? That’s an absurdity.”
Gar-Pal student Cocking stood up to speak again next.
He made a point that a larger number of boys play sports than girls, and the boys are against this.
“Why do something for the girls that would make it worse for the majority (the boys)?” he asked.
As the meeting moved toward conclusion, questions were directed at school board members asking if there was any other information they knew which was key to this.
They said no.
The boards will meet again on Jan. 2.
“All we know is that we’re meeting again on the second,” Dymkoski said, noting that they could decide to approve it, vote it down or table it indefinitely.
The discussion continued.
“I haven’t heard one compelling argument to (approve this) in either of the two meetings,” Dymkoski said.
“Next year you’ll have nine girls turning out for basketball at the varsity level,” said Coles after some more discussion.
There was a suggestion that the Gar-Pal softball team would be disbanded next year, due to lack of players.
Coles then reiterated a WIAA rule which prevents a new kid who transfers schools - without a change of residence - from playing varsity the first year they join a new school.
“If they go there, they can’t play varsity, they must play J.V. for a year,” he said.
As for where the decisive student numbers may fall on Jan. 8, Miller of the WIAA suggested that an idea of what they look like can be had before then.
As the Garfield meeting came to a close, a show of hands was taken. About three-quarters of the audience was against the proposal.
In a last bit of comment, Coles confirmed that if athletes join another school’s team, they bring their entire student population with them.
“Sounds like there’s not a lot of options for the Oakesdale kids,” said a woman in the audience. “Because what school is gonna do that?”
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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