Here is an article from the Toledo Blade today.
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100304/NEWS04/3040400

So what does this do to the league for next year's football? With the threat of ending athletics!!
Is it time for Whitmer, Clay, the 3 catholics, Fremont, Findlay to get the heck out of this mess?

This could be a great opportunity!

They aren't going to dump athletics as those are the only things that bring in money for the schools. They just bring that up to get parents involved (finally) to get them to approve of the tax hike. The other city schools could easily have left years ago and I doubt they do now.

It's going to be tough to pass that tax increase in this economy. And while the threat of eliminating sports may not come to pass, the possible closure of Libbey could very well happen.

^^ That likely will happen and has been in the works for 2 years now.

In my opinion they have been dragging their feet in regards to Libbey. They should have closed it 2 years ago and it would have saved them some money.

It's a scare tactic. This won't happen.

It would really hurt the private schools in Toledo as well.

Thunder70 wrote:

It would really hurt the private schools in Toledo as well.

How?

I agree Thunder. It will also hurt Whitmer and Clay. The biggest problem will be scheduling other teams to fill in for the city schools that can't compete. This will be a problem in all sports. In football we'd have to replace 3 games-weeks 4, 9 and 10.
I am curious when the Toledo school board will decide.

You don't have anything to worry about. They will not cut athletics in TPS. This is a scare tactic designed to get parents supporting a new tax. Athletics are basically the only activities that make money for TPS, so it is highly unlikely they get cut.

jm71witmr wrote: I agree Thunder. It will also hurt Whitmer and Clay. The biggest problem will be scheduling other teams to fill in for the city schools that can't compete. This will be a problem in all sports. In football we'd have to replace 3 games-weeks 4, 9 and 10.
I am curious when the Toledo school board will decide.

Findlay, Lima and Marion are all ready to help fill those schedules.

The reality of the situation is much larger than a scare tactic. The school board and president should have used scare tactics about 5 years ago, far too little and too late now.

The City of Toledo AND the Toledo Public Schools are two completely different entities fighting over the same carrot, which is of course tax payer dollars. The residents of Toledo are NOT going to approve a new tax for their schools.

In the recent Blade article the savings added up to $8-9 million dollars. That barely puts a dent in the $30 million deficit and that is WITH Libbey and all of these acadameys closing AND cutting athletics. Woodward and possibly Scott need to go as well, but the shortsightedness of the powers that be just rebuilt Woodward and refurbished Scott! About a decade ago, when they knew that they were going to get the state settlement money and rebuild the district they should have redrawn up the HS districts rather than simply rebuilding schools at or near where they are located now based on 1930's-1960's demographics. As the older folks around here will tell you, Toledo's make-up has changed drastically since 1960.

Look, the last time this happened (1991) things got really bad and schools changed for good. It was around 1990-1991 when Toledo lost a bunch of their good, hard working and tax paying citizens to the suburbs because they had enough. It took 10-15 years for many of the TPS schools to recover (Rogers, Start) and some never did (Woodward). This time I feel will be far worse.

It will be interesting to see how many of the parents of all of the TPS underclassmen who are involved in sports decide to leave and not even stick around and see how this plays out.

What will become of Toledo Libbey's basketball team (strong junior class) and their talented Coach McClure?

Very well put irish buffalo....this could be very interesting and will again help some neighboring suburban schools in athletics.

This problem is not regulated to just Toledo, this is going on all over the state.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/andy_staples/09/16/nosports/index.html

South-Western City School Board (the district includes four high schools: Central Crossing, Grove City, Franklin Heights and Westland) took the unprecedented step of canceling all extra-curricular activities after voters failed to pass an operating levy Aug. 4


Here in Akron 4 years ago, they cut Middle school sports for a year, and the High schools were going to follow if a levy had not of passed. these are not scare tactics anymore.

hubman wrote: This problem is not regulated to just Toledo, this is going on all over the state.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/andy_staples/09/16/nosports/index.html

South-Western City School Board (the district includes four high schools: Central Crossing, Grove City, Franklin Heights and Westland) took the unprecedented step of canceling all extra-curricular activities after voters failed to pass an operating levy Aug. 4


Here in Akron 4 years ago, they cut Middle school sports for a year, and the High schools were going to follow if a levy had not of passed. these are not scare tactics anymore.

Amen. I would hate to see what happened to SWCS happen elswhere. Good Luck TPS!

I've heard TPS' deficit for next year is $70mil already, and the year following it's $120mil. They are screwed.

^ Thats what they neglect to tell everyone.

It will compound. $30 million this year, $70 next, and more beyond.

We can bicker about population decline, administrative excess, lost tax revenue, etc...

However this is a problem state and country wide and is absolutely disgusting, that in this great nation, that we cannot fund our schools.

We're too busy funding other crap.

sjmvsfscs08 wrote: I've heard TPS' deficit for next year is $70mil already, and the year following it's $120mil. They are screwed.

If this is true the schools will have no choice but to shutdown.

2quik4u wrote:

sjmvsfscs08 wrote: I've heard TPS' deficit for next year is $70mil already, and the year following it's $120mil. They are screwed.

If this is true the schools will have no choice but to shutdown.

When the "golden goose" lays her eggs we can all breath a bit easier.

Dina the Goose , that is!

Well I work in TPS, so you can go ahead and assume it's not entirely false.

I bickered ad nauseum with irish_buffalo in prior months, saying it would be very tough to close Libbey because they would have a headache--and gun shots--trying to move all of the students to other districts. But that was before I knew just how bad the budgetary problems are. They have absolutely no choice at this point.

What they should have done was, when they decided to build new schools, build four or five "mega high schools." A northern, eastern, western, southern, and central one. Essentially keep Bowsher, Waite, Rogers, and Start, but combine Woodward, Scott and Libbey and bring back Toledo Central Public (the Mastodons)!

Instead, they built smaller schools. Bowsher, for example, is built for 1500 and already has in the neighborhood of 1450+. You cannot fit the 650 Libbey students in there. So instead students will have to be divided among Bowsher, Waite, and Scott. Putting Scott and Libbey together will be interesting.

Bottom line is TPS is basically screwed. Jack Ford can huff and puff all he wants, but politics can't change these problems, these problems are legitimate.

sjmvsfscs08, Oh my we finally agree.

I've been on here and other websites () preaching for years how TPS dropped the ball in building schools right on top of existing schools based on 1930s-1960s demographics.

Bottom line: EVERY advanced and civilized nation on the globe can figure out health care, retirement, and SCHOOLING (three undeniable rights) yet we cannot. Why? Dont let the Wolves run the hen house.

So I hear the levy went down in flames. Whats gonna happen now? Football is only 3 months away.....

It will definitely be interesting. The problem coming out of Libbey is that they released a lot of teams from their contracts, because TPS said they wouldn't be open next year, and a lot of those teams are refusing to resign until they know definitively what's happening.

Libbey though probably isn't the school that should get the ax. They have a nice attendance rate and their school is actually improving. Their count is like 577, according to The Blade. Scott on the other hand, since their move into the DeVilbiss building this year, has only seen their attendance woes exacerbated. If kids miss the bus, they simply walk home. Many people think those kids will never go back to the Scott building, as the costs of truly renovating it exceed 100m+.

Most people don't realize that TPS could fit Bowsher's entire school in Libbey, it's that big. But Libbey has traditionally be the redheaded stepchild and no one would let that happen. So what I'd like to see is a combination of Libbey/Scott and maybe Woodward into Scott's renovated building on Collingwood. It's rather centrally located, and the building is of historical significance so I hope they don't knock it down. But they all would fit. You'd have Libbey's 577 + Scott's 400-600. You'd have 1,000 kids in there and that's the minimum a TPS high school should be.

As for the immediate future, it's tough to close a school this late in the game. But they have to decide before the submit their budgets on June 30th. If I were a betting man, I'd say TPS is waiting as late as possible to make their cuts, so there isn't a mass exodus of kids to other districts. I know that in the village I live in outside Toledo, the houses that are for sale have had their phones ringing off the hook with people from Toledo trying to escape that sinking ship. It's truly sad to see, but the bigwigs on the board did this to themselves.

Catholics, Whitmer, Clay, and Ross need to get Findlay, and invite Sandusky or Lima Senior, and form a new league. Irish Buffalo you've mentioned this and I agree.

sniper_8 wrote: Catholics, Whitmer, Clay, and Ross need to get Findlay, and invite Sandusky or Lima Senior, and form a new league. Irish Buffalo you've mentioned this and I agree.

Findlay
Fremont Ross
Lima Senior
Oregon Clay
Toledo Central Catholic
Toledo St. Francis
Toledo St. Johns
Toledo Whitmer

...don't be suprised to see this league in the very near future. Sandusky will be joining the Northern Ohio League.