Three members of the public spoke at last week’s meeting of the Winslow Unified School District Governing Board, two of which worked with American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) who came to speak about how their local soccer league has grown over the years. Last season, which ended around the beginning of November, had double the number of participants compared to the year before.
Laura Carrell spoke first and explained how Winslow is one of the only high schools in the region without a soccer team and many kids who age out of AYSO at age 15 have nowhere else to go for soccer and often choose not to participate in athletics when they get to high school.
The other member of the public from AYSO, Mark Gerber, also spoke about the ways their organization can share resources with Winslow High School (WHS) while they get their program off the ground.
In the same meeting, the board heard a presentation from the WHS Activities Director Bryan Lang who spoke about the possibility of starting a soccer program for the high school. Lang presented to the board a couple months ago with preliminary data on what it might take to get the soccer program up and running, but this meeting he gave a more concrete look at how much things might cost the district including a $30,000 price tag for equipment and over $6,000 for uniforms. The board was concerned that this seemed a bit high, but Lang assured the board that this is startup costs and the annual investment to keep the program going will be much less.
Lang also informed the board that the Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) has a two-year blocked schedule, which means that if Winslow plays Holbrook at home next year they are automatically scheduled for an away game, because of that the AIA is not willing to put Winslow on the soccer schedule until the fall 2024 season, which gives the board and Lang plenty of time to make decisions on the program.
The board also heard from Stephanie Lugo, a mother of a WHS student who participates in NAVIT (Northern Arizona Institute of Technology), the program with Northland Pioneer College (NPC) that provides students technical training while they are in high school.
Lugo was concerned that every other school in the area coordinates their spring break with NPCs, which allows the students of the NAVIT program to actually have a week off of classes as opposed to WHS NAVIT student’s situation now where they don’t have the first half of the day when NPC is on break and skip the second half when WHS is on break.
The board acknowledged this and it was noted that this is already in the plan for next year to coordinate with NPC for spring break.
The board also heard a presentation from the Robotics Club at Bonnie Brennan Elementary School, which included the club’s sponsor Steve Brodt and a few members of the club explaining what they do. The club is very successful, with two teams that went to the state competition for robotics.
The students put on a skit that goes along with their project and design for a robot. The idea was a deafening device for sea wind turbines in order to minimize interruption to wildlife. The skit explained how the wildlife were being affected by the sounds of the wind turbines, interrupting sharks’ ability to hunt and whales’ ability to communicate.
In other business the board:
* Approved extracurricular pay for Wilburt Barton for track and Brian Wilcox for junior-varsity softball.
* Approved fundraisers for the Indian Club to sell Easter grams for $2-5, the Track Club for concessions at meets and the FanCloth Team Store for $19-5, and the Class of 2026 for “promposal” grams for $5-10.
* Approved the creation of Winslow Junior High School Book Club sponsored by WJHS Media Technician Addie James.
* Approved a contract with Special Services Consortium for services associated with special needs students such as a speech-language pathologist and a physical therapist. The cost of the contract is just over $91,000.
