New Tech denied shared activities

The Anderson Union High School District board of trustees discontinued the option for Anderson New Technology student's to participate in extra-curricular activities at their sister schools, in spite of pleas made by school representatives and community members filling the board room last Tuesday.

ANTHS teacher Steve Main addressed the board first, urging them to allow his students to participate in activities like sports and performing arts at Anderson Union and West Valley High Schools. The students had enjoyed this option for the past 6 years.

"I hope we want to say to all of our students, that in our district every child has equal opportunity to thrive and succeed," Main said.

The teacher said New Tech students benefit from sports and other activities the small charter school is unable to provide.

"They come to New Tech because it offers them something unique. It offers them a chance to evolve in a different way than they might not at a large school," Main said. "Many of our students might struggle in a traditional setting. But in our small school environment they find a pace and a progress that enables them to thrive. Please grant them the same access to the playing field to the performing arts facilities that other students enjoy, extracurricular opportunities, a chance to be exposed to different people and new perspectives."

2008 New Technology graduate Trevor Siperik played sports at West Valley High School. Siperik was offered a scholarship to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.

"That is a product of the education he received at this district, not at one school," father John Siperik said. "When they didn't have a class available for him at New Tech, he was allowed to go to West Valley so he could be competitive to get in the coast guard academy. That scholarship is about a $280,000. There's a lot of value in this."

But members of the district's Board of Trustees said that families will have to decide what is more important to them, the extracurricular activities available at the comprehensive schools, or the small-classes available at New Technology High School.

"The tech school never was meant to have sports or anything else. It was formed for a certain type of education," said board member Richard Urban. "It has its own budget. In other words, the money that is coming in from the ADA for the Tech School is kept there. Any extra is not put in the general fund for the comprehensive schools."

Board members said it was unwise to share extracurricular resources between the New Tech charter school and the two other district schools because there is a separate budget for the charter school, and the schools are actually competing with New Technology High School for students within the district.

"The finances between the schools are completely different. They have a pot of money, and the other high schools have a pot of money," said board trustee Ron Brown.

"The charter school was designed to provide technology for those students who wish to do so. As a result of that, they use their money to have lower class sizes, to have more teachers, and they pay their teachers to do that. They have those advantages," Brown said. "Comprehensive schools chose to have their class sizes larger, and be able to offer football, basketball, and other extra activities. There is a huge amount of money that goes into that."

One board member, Joe Gibson, motioned to continue to allow New Technology students to take part in extracurricular activities at West Valley and Anderson High. But the motion was not seconded.

In addition to budget concerns, board members cited a new rule by the California Interscholastic Federation that prohibits students attending New Tech from out of the AUHS district from taking part in inter-district school activities. It was also mentioned that New Tech students add numbers to West Valley and Anderson High School sports, and could change the division the teams play in.