Crossing the Line

I love my daughters. I love being an active and involved part of their lives. I support them at school - volunteering in the classrooms or for activities. I participate in fundraisers and send The Big Kid on field trips. I am a girls scout leader and help them with their fundraisers. I pay their dues. I go to all their cheer leading games and competitions. I pay for them to play. I bring them to theater auditions and rehearsals and shows. I provide their costumes as needed. I coach(ed) soccer as does the Big Kid. I pay for them to play. I do fundraisers. I am willing to help out and due these things because I care. And because I can. If my child wants to participate in a sport or activity, I will gladly pay for it and fundraiser for it as needed and to the best of my ability. I will help out as much as I can.

I will never, ever fundraiser for their soccer league again. Last night, they voted to "donate" a portion of the rec. soccer money to pay for the public high school's soccer jerseys. Because they need two different jerseys - one for home and one for away (well newsflash, it's been like that since I was in high school. And in case this is new to you, they require the same in middle school). And they cost $70 each. And they have no money. And parents have to pay $50 a sport. Wah wah, boo freaking wooo. I pay for my kids to go to school and THEN pay for their extracurricular activities on top of that. In addition to paying my taxes which go TO YOUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS that my children do not use.

First of all - our town just build a MULTIMILLION dollar high school - opened for the first time this fall. However, they have yet to pay a home game because the fields aren't ready and the gym floors- not even a year old are warped - and need to be replaced (why, because they didn't put a humidity sensor in the gym and the summer was warm). The whole reason for building a new school was the old high school was on accreditation probation from the NAYEC. The building didn't meet current standards and would have cost too much to repair.

HOWEVER, now they have a big empty building and wouldn't it be great to repair and combine the two elementary schools so K-2 are in one building, 3-5 are in another and 6-8 are in the third (currently they have 2 elementary schools with K-4 and a middle school with 5-8). Just because the building didn't meet safety standards, we can just put little kids in at and everyone will forget the reason we built the new school because look how shiny and new it is. And whole nice new package will make everyone forget about the issues within - that we have the same teachers, that we are still failing the standardized test. It's okay. We'll just give every high schooler a laptop.

There are so many, many things I disagree with... but taking money from recreation soccer to help pay for the jerseys of the high school teams (some board member's kids play for high school). irritates the hell out of me. They claim "but in the long run, it will be for YOUR children". What about the kids who live in other towns. What about the kids (like my own) who do not, and WILL not go to public school in the town we live? And 6 years from now, when my child is a high schooler, you mean to tell me they'll be using the same jerseys? I am not some mindless idiot who is going to believe the bull shit your trying to sell me.

Please do not tell me that we have no money in rec. soccer - that we need to reuse jerseys for two season (even though I pay the same for registration both season) to cut costs. That we need new equipment. Tell me that we are barely meeting our expenses. But then tell me we have plenty of money to support the public school teams.

I am not an idiot. I can tell you though, I will pay my registration fees as long as my children play for your league (I'm tempted to switch to a different league, however they have great coaches). But I will never, ever fund raise for you again.