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Extracurricular activities deserve support of board
Several times in recent years we’ve heard people question the Jackson County school board’s commitment to excellence in extracurricular activities.
The subject is usually athletics, but recent action by the board to dismiss Smoky Mountain High Band Director Don Miller has turned the focus to another area. Whoever Miller’s replacement is, when school starts in August the Marching Mustangs will be under their seventh director in the past six years. That type turnover is unacceptable and begs the following question:
How is it a school system that once produced a national champion high school band cannot keep a band director for more than one year – or not find a band director it wants to keep for more than one year?
We wonder if it’s the same kind of leadership, or lack thereof, that has led to Smoky Mountain having 44 percent of its athletic teams coached by non-school personnel.
The lack of a middle school hampers the ability to be competitive in sports, but the school board has taken no action to rectify this problem. That lack of rigorous competition is the athletic equivalent of expecting students to do well in high school without courses past sixth-grade level.
Too often, programs such as band and athletics have been viewed as being at odds. Sports teams within the athletic department have even had perceived conflicts, especially among parents.
That attitude needs to stop. There’s strength in numbers. It’s time parents and supporters of each athletic team, the band and all other extracurricular activities come together to demand the best for our young people. They deserve nothing less.
No one is suggesting academics take a back seat to extracurricular activities. We simply believe youth in Jackson County can excel in all areas if leadership from the top provides the proper resources for our coaches, band directors, etc.
We may not go back to the glory days of the 1970s when Sylva-Webster High’s band, football team and baseball team were the envy of the state, but we can strive to move in that direction.
If our school board members have time to improperly discuss field trips in closed session, surely they can make time for a closer examination of this serious problem.
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