ExpertIdiot Wrote:

Couple of ideas, from someone who does the middle school thing:

- Has he thought about a "dues" structure, similar to club volleyball. Our middle schools receive no funding from anyone, and we just split up the cost and charge each family around $200. It's peanuts, really. We pay for jerseys, spandex, a few new balls, and pay for the coaches. If he can't charge the parents for the entire cost, certainly he could have the dues cover part of the cost.

Karl says: Yeah, but there was too much red tape to cut through. The school district still wants to be in charge of middle school athletics, and I couldn't wrestle administration rights away from them. The price tag they quoted was that. I don't really know how to get around that one.

- How about a camp before the season starts, with tryouts at the end of the camp? For example, a 4 day camp at the end of July (Mon-Thurs) and tryouts on Friday. Camp costs $100-$150. With 40 campers, this is $4000-$6000. You can pay your coaches and still be left with a lot of money to run the program.

Karl wrote: We do run a summer camp. It is at the end of July, that is our "assigned" week to get gym space at little/no cost. Our deadline to have the money in for our 7th, 8th and 9th grade programs is June
15th. I will get some registrations in for a July 28-31st camp in before June 15th, but I can't count on all of
them coming in before that date. Great money maker, logistically impossible to bank on those funds appearing in our booster club account before the imposed deadline of June 15th.

- The costs that he outlines seem a little high. I'm wondering what else he pays for besides uniforms, balls, coaches, and referees for game day....

Karl wrote: I didn't come up with the $ figures for saving these grade levels. The school district did. In essence, they said jump - and I said "Crap! How high?" Coaching, referees and transportation figure to be the bulk of those costs. Our 7th 8th and 9th grade teams run a schedule totally independent of our 10th, JV and Varsity. Buses are ridiculously expensive and coaches should be paid fairly. To be quite frank, is the
salary I make for the job of Head Volleyball Coach "fair"? Considering the hundreds of hours I willingly and happily put into the program on an annual basis? Ummm... If I was living in a 3rd world country then probably yes.

Anyway, good article, and I think he's way too hard on himself about his writing ability. He's a good writer....

Karl wrote: Great feedback ExpertIdiot! You make some good points and raise some excellent questions. I will try to explain more in depth as the series continues to unfold in this column. Thank you for the kind words at the end of your post, and I hope this is an entertaining piece for all of the prepvb.com readers!

Thanks again to John Tawa for the opportunity to share our story here! The generosity and positive comments have been fantastic. If you feel compelled, please contact me as to how you can help us.

Sincerely,

Karl Katzenberger - ahsvb@hotmail.com

oldblueeyes wrote:

While I appreciate your energy and understand your plight, the taxpayers of Minnesota and the officials they have elected need to address the shortfall as it's done in every other state, city, and school district IMHO.

Karl wrote: I don't know if I'm allowed to link to other sites on this board, but the Minneapolis Star and Tribune just did a 3 part piece on this issue. It was well done. but the real driving force behind the story is the comments and feedback sent by readers of the paper to the website. Sometimes angry, misguided, enlighted, passionate - just a spewing of public opinion.

I'm not sure which camp I am in as to who is responsible for the shortcomings in school districts. I just know that it is suddenly my responsibility to raise funds for these kids to have an opportunity to play. I know that is definately not fair for the fate of these playing opportunities to rest upon someone who can barely get dressed by himself in the morning - but it is the current state of affairs. I do know that I commited to volleyball and kids, and I am going to do everything in my power to not allow this travesty to occur due to lack of money. Trust me, if I was independantly wealthy - this wouldn't be an issue and I wouldn't be cyber-panhandling in the manner I am. Unfortunately, I am not - so I am doing everything I can - including appealing to likeminded individuals such as yourselves to help us. I am however hopefully providing a service in return. A potentially very entertaining column that will entail our story as it moves along this fall. I am asking the kids, parents and supporters of our program to work hard to raise funds.
It would feel remiss if I was not doing the same.

Karl

JTawa wrote:

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When I covered the city beat as a newspaper reporter, my job encompassed covering the Manhattan Beach Unified School District, a district that received the same ADA (average daily allowance -- per diem per student) as other schools across the state.

Why did the district have more so it could do more? Because of extensive local fundraising efforts to a wealthy community interested in the welfare and well bring of its children.

Even the wealthiest districts fund raise like mad. The notion that districts rely exclusively on taxes to operate is just not true.

Agreed, they do. However, the operative word in that sentence, from my perspective is "wealthy". Like it or not, a referendum in the wealthy community is much easier to pass. Do the less wealthy communities care less about their kids welfare and opportunities? In my experience no. It is a combination of two things -

1) $20 a month means way more to a less wealthy family. It would mean perhaps skipping an evening out, or stretching a perhaps already threadbare budget.

2) Why doesn't the affected family just pick up and move to a "Wealthier Community"? The simple answer is - most times they can't afford a house in the "Weathier Community". The Japanese Empire theory. Stay tuned for more on that.

And the $20 per month levy is a pittance to the "Weathier Community". The referendum passes with ease because it is much easier to pass a levy on 0.1% of someones income than 0.5%. Trust me, that's a huge difference. I am about to pass out right now due to my excitement to write about this topic. This defines the "Blood Rivalry" I was hinting at in the 1st issue. I won't ruin the future column - but just know I am itching to address this.

The bottom line is: Yes - John is correct in stating that even "Wealthy" communities are fundraising like mad to sustain their "Elite" status. The true disparity between communities in the current urban/suburban scope is the amount of wealth that resides in each community. In a VAST oversimplification, I will offer a question -

Your car breaks down, and you need to ask one relative for money to fix it. Who is the most likely to help?

1) Grandmother and Grandfather on your mothers' side. Who both love you, care about your well being and have been very active in your life. They on a fixed income as they are retired, and although willing - may have to make an obvious financial concession to help you.

2) Grandmama and Grandpapa on your fathers' side. Both have been active in your life, care about you and have been very active in your life. They both live very comfortably as they are independantly wealthy as result of owning several successful businesses.

It seems natural who most of us would ask/expect to recieve help from. Does that make your maternal grandparents care about supporting you less? Does is make it easier for your paternal grandparents to "write the check"? Should you not even bother asking your maternal grandparents? I dunno... but I promise to explore this topic further.


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olddblueeyes wrote:

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....congrats on figuring out the Quote button!

Thanks - good job pointing me in the right direction.

I'll be interested to read your next offering weighing the complex dynamics of rich versus poor; privileged versus needy; etc. keeping in mind that inherited wealth accounts for a very small percentage of total wealth in some of the communities you may considered privilege.

Hmmm... I sense some sarcasm here. I do not intend to make a social commentary or outline my platform for elected office. I only want to share my story in the scope of fundraising. I will be using a nearby community - that quite frankly is wealthier than ours as a comparison. I don't know or care how they got their wealth - nor am I passing judgement on how they acquired it. Sheesh.

Their wealth, and I'm not sure exactly and what level of income, savings or net worth were applying here, comes from hard work, savings, investment, risk taking, etc. resulting in an acquired wealth, again whatever level were defining that term to be.

Agreed - that is how most people do acquire wealth in a capitolistic society. Again - I am making no judgement upon how the "wealthy" community has acquired said wealth. Frankly, I don't care if they won the lottery, worked 100 hour weeks for 80 years straight or found it buried in their backyard. They are still a person to me, same as you - and won't merit any special consideration or unecessary ill will.

Until they have proven deserving of either due to words, action or deed.

So as we go forward, know that many of us wealthy well-to-dos are such because we worked our tails off and are now staunch Republicans who cringe a little at social agenda of the Democrats and get pretty irate at the views of Socialism...

This is a bit of a defensively worded statement. I'm sorry if you felt singled out or attacked by my previous post. I obviously had no idea you were a self described wealthy well-to-do. I make no claim of any form of goverment or social policy that is better than one or the other.

I have no vendetta against self described wealthy well-to-do's. I will be using my school district in a comparative light with a rival school district that happens to be "wealthier". They have different methods of fund raising. I will be citing examples of differences and inherent advantages in both methods of fundraising.

Again, anxiously awaiting you next article..

I would invite you to contact me via email if you are offended by anything I have written. I certainly offer an apology if that is the case.