The Juneau School District\u2019s goal is not to merge all activities between the two high schools, said Board of Education Vice President Andi Story at Tuesday night\u2019s regular meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you consolidate everyone, you would have less kids participating in activities,\u201d she said. \u201cThe idea was in some of the activities where it was dwindling and not having the numbers, if we could consolidate some of those.\u201d<\/p>\n
The district recently announced<\/a> merging a few sports and activities at its two traditional high schools under one roof next fall.<\/p>\n \u201cWe petitioned (the Alaska Schools Activities Association), which nobody had ever done before, for a one-year pilot program to combine four different activities: tennis, wrestling, DDF and dance, if we chose to,\u201d Superintendent Mark Miller said at the meeting.<\/p>\n \u201cTennis is only at (Juneau-Douglas High School), so that\u2019ll stay there. Most of the kids that wrestle are at Thunder Mountain High School, so that\u2019ll be housed there. Most of the kids who do (drama, debate, forensics) are at TM so that\u2019ll be housed there. And we\u2019re hoping to find a dance instructor for TM and keep it going the way it is, but we\u2019ll see how that goes,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n [Some high school sports, activities may merge<\/a>.]<\/p>\n The district recently posted the job opening for a dance coach at TMHS and it\u2019ll run for a few weeks, Miller said during a break in the meeting.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we can\u2019t find one, we\u2019ll allow TM students be a part of JD\u2019s dance program,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Choosing what activities to merge was \u201cvery strategic,\u201d Miller said. The process went through the district\u2019s activities advisory council.<\/p>\n While the district will be saving the funding for two or three coach stipends, Miller said the impetus to merge activities was only partly monetary.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t have enough students in some of those programs to make them viable. We didn\u2019t have enough wrestlers at a school to wrestle all the weight classes,\u201d he said. \u201cIf a team came with all the weight classes from Ketchikan, some of the weight classes wouldn\u2019t have anything to do except sit there and take a forfeit as they walked out on the mat, and that\u2019s not good for anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n The wrestling program at JDHS has gone from 26 participants in 2008 to 14 in 2014. TMHS\u2019s program started with 25 in 2010 and was at 20 in 2013. Dance participant numbers at JDHS have stayed, on average, in the mid-20s between 2008 and 2014. TMHS\u2019s dance team had eight members in 2010 and 14 in 2013. JDHS\u2019s tennis program has fluctuated between 2008 and 2014 with a low participation of 31 to a high of 49. The district didn\u2019t have activity figures from 2015, or any concrete participation numbers for DDF.<\/p>\n After the one-year waiver to merge certain activities, Miller said the district will evaluate to see if it worked.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can go back again and ask for a longer term waiver or we can say, \u2018It was an interesting experiment, but we don\u2019t think it flew.\u2019 Or we can look at it and say, \u2018Gee, it worked really well here, are there other sports where perhaps this would make sense?\u2019 and open up that discussion,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n He said there\u2019s been no talk on what other activities could receive the same treatment in the future, but he said it likely won\u2019t be any of the major sports like basketball or football.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you merged the two football programs, we can\u2019t be in a league with Sitka and Ketchikan anymore because we\u2019re double their size as a school, which means we\u2019ll be flying to Anchorage every other week or flying Anchorage here. That has a travel dynamic that could wipe out any potential savings,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n No one from the public commented on the issue of merging activities.<\/p>\n TMHS senior Kevin Allen, student school board representative, said he thinks students are \u201ccontent\u201d with it and characterized the process as \u201cresponsible merging.\u201d<\/p>\n JDHS student school board representative Aidan Seid agreed and said, \u201cJDHS is really supportive of this merging.\u201d<\/p>\n In other business, the school board approved a new kindergarten through 12th grade social studies curriculum. The last time it was updated was in 2000. The new curriculum will eliminate high school honors courses in favor of AP courses.<\/p>\n The board also approved adopting an elementary standards-based report card and decided to continue holding regular school board meetings at TMHS.<\/p>\n Shortly before 10 p.m., the board went into executive session to discuss collective bargaining.<\/p>\n \u2022 Contact reporter Lisa Phu at 523-2246 or lisa.phu@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n Related stories:<\/p>\n Holdat, is that Carlos Boozer? NBA star talks to the Empire about what’s next<\/a><\/p>\n