VCUSD continues to take missteps
Meeting did not accomplish anything for local athletes
The Vallejo Unified School District once again had a crucial at-bat during Wednesday’s board meeting.
And once again, VCUSD struck out looking on three pitches without even the benefit of a swing.
Superintendent William Spalding and Director of Secondary Education Ruth Steele talked about the potential return of athletics during the Zoom meeting, but not much was accomplished. In fact, you could argue that the discussion went in reverse, rather than forward.
Spalding categorized the Times-Herald’s coverage on the issue as “unfair” and then said the district had “no other choice.” That in itself, is not true. The district has had plenty of choices since January.
Eight other schools in the TriCounty Athletic League voted yes to move forward with sports once the number of coronavirus cases started to show signs of improvement. When Vallejo and Jesse Bethel voted no, it started
a chain of events that left the conference fractured.
He then said “We have to concern ourselves with the fine print” when discussing the decision for football and other outdoor sports.
“The fine print in football is that you can’t play football in the purple tier,” he said. “You can’t play football in the red tier. You have to go into the orange tier before you have football.”
The problem with this statement is — it is no longer true. On Feb. 19, Gov. Gavin Newsom made a compromise to open up all outdoor sports throughout the state. Football and other contact sports simply have more restrictions than others.
At the time of the announcement,
Solano County schools could not start sports like football, soccer and water polo. The county’s per-capita rate was too high.
Last week, Solano reached that per capita threshold. As of Saturday, its per capita total was
8.2 new COVID-19 cases a day per 100,000 residents — well below the number needed to move on.
This was Spalding’s mistake but no board member challenged him on this either, which is troubling.
Spalding also cited transportation issues. This is a crucial question for any school district and I don’t envy officials since athletes have to be kept six feet apart while traveling.
Many other districts are allowing parents drive their kids to away games. This is problematic for some, but parents drive their sons and daughters
to travel ball events all the time. If this means scheduling more Friday and Saturday events to accommodate families, then so be it.
Also, keep in mind that the district has not used transportation for athletic events since last March. That means transportation was not needed for anything in April and May
of last school year and not used from August until now because sports were shut down. That’s a heck of a lot of money that wasn’t spent.
Maybe use two buses instead of the usual one and limit the number of athletes that can go on road trips. This is something Solano Community College
has already said it will do for late spring sports.
Spalding also cited testing as a key issue and he’s right (to an extent). Football players and others playing contact sports have to be tested before playing — unless the county is below seven percent per capita per 100,000 residents. St. Patrick-St. Vincent and Benicia have tests scheduled before their first games later this month — if they are needed.
School districts do not have to pay for this though. The funds are paid through the State of California.
Even if Spalding and the board have a fundamental disagreement with the state on contact sports, maybe they should have considered phasing in the non-contact activities first. It’s all about incremental progress.
Bill Murray famously
talked about “baby steps” in his classic comedy “What About Bob.” VCUSD is not even in the embryo stage.
Besides Benicia and
St. Pat’s, Solano County schools in Vacaville, Fairfield, Rio Vista and Winters are all moving forward with schedules already set.
The board presented an action plan for a return to sports but with no timelines or a sense of urgency, this becomes a moot point.
The bottom line is — this was a missed opportunity for VCUSD to restore some sense of normalcy to its student body. There are still some months of the school year left for something to be accomplished, but time is running out.