Yet another side effect of the upcoming budget crisis for the 2024-2025 school year is the elimination of non-WIAA (Washington Interscholastic Activities Association) sports. The crew team at North Creek, on January 29th, posted a statement on Instagram detailing that the upcoming spring 2024 season will be the final season of the sport. Rowing is a co-ed team sport, competing during both the fall and spring athletic seasons, and combines with the team at Woodinville High School to increase program size. Crew participants and families alike will be greatly impacted by the decision made by the district, and are scrambling to make this final season the best in North Creek history.
As per school board policy 2151, parents and participants of non-WIAA sports are responsible for funding coach salaries, necessary equipment, uniform fees, officials’ fees, and the necessary transportation. Crew is an extremely expensive sport, as the team has over $145,000 in fixed costs including boathouse rental, maintenance, and shell replacements. This policy is not new, and crew families have taken on the financial burden of the school sanctioned sport.
The question proceeds, if crew is already fully funded by participants, as stated by the school board, and not funded by the school, then what will eliminating crew as a school sanctioned sport do to aid in the upcoming budget crisis? Essentially, the “fixed” costs listed to be necessary to crew include not only boathouse rental, but also a boathouse manager. Just these two costs add up to a whopping $101,468, which accounts for around two-thirds of the fixed costs associated with crew.
In a statement released by the Northshore School District addressed to crew families, Amity Butler, the district director of athletics, explained that the funding for crew is not sustainable in the future, especially because of the current budget shortfall and the need to reduce over twenty six million dollars. Butler adds that the decision is overwhelmingly a result of the underfunding of basic education from the state of Washington. The district reiterated an understanding for the amount of students the decision will impact, and extended compassion towards them. At the end of the letter, Butler provided community opportunities for crew athletes to explore if they desire to continue their sport.
