A proposal to bring co-ed soccer and baseball to Winslow Junior High School will have to wait until the district can hire enough drivers to get teams to their games, Superintendent Dr. Amber Martinez told the Winslow Unified School District Governing Board last week.
The sports proposal came from Athletic Director Ricky Greer, who wrote in a memo to the board that the junior high offers 13 programs to the high school’s 18 and that soccer, baseball and swim are the only high school sports without a junior high feeder program. Greer proposed joining the Northern Arizona Interscholastic Conference, an 18-school junior high league, to play co-ed soccer from Oct. 12 to Dec. 12 and baseball from March 15 to May 8. His memo put the cost at $300 in conference dues and $2,822 in coaching stipends for each sport, plus about $800 for soccer shirts, roughly $500 for baseball shirts and less than $1,000 in baseball equipment. He pointed to junior high cross country, which he said has grown from about 12 runners in 2024 to nearly 50 this fall and wrote that students from Birdsprings, Dilcon and Hopi have transferred to the junior high because of its athletics offerings.
“We think it’s a great idea. We do have the funds for it,” Superintendent Martinez said. “Our only drawback right now is transportation. Sometimes we have issues being able to cover all of our trips as is and so we don’t want to get into a predicament where we’re not able to transport kids to events.”
Greer’s memo suggested the teams could travel by minibus but Martinez said that with possible road games in Window Rock, Tuba City and Page, the district’s older vehicles are not up to the job. “Right now, our two small white buses, we don’t trust to go too far,” she said, adding that two newly purchased yellow buses are often already committed to existing high school and junior high events. Board members noted the white buses seat about 13 students and have no room for baseball bags and backpacks. The district has posted openings for trip drivers and wants them to hold commercial licenses.
“I’m glad that he proposed it and is thinking ahead,” Martinez said. “We’re just not quite there yet.” Board President Debbie Martinez said the board would keep the idea “on the back burner,” and Greer is expected to present the plan in person at a future meeting when all five members are present.
The transportation theme carried into the night’s only action item, a rewritten bus driver job description. Martinez called the old version “pretty vague.” “What we were seeing is that people were applying and then when Tony would call them and let them know the different qualifications, a majority of them were not qualified,” she said, referring to Transportation Director Tony Mora. The new description spells out a minimum age of 21, with applicants 18 to 20 considered only with written approval from the superintendent and the board, along with a commercial driver license with passenger and school bus endorsements, a state school bus driver certificate, a fingerprint clearance card, first aid and CPR certification, a physical performance test every 24 months and pre-employment drug testing. It also states that marijuana use, including medical marijuana, is prohibited for school bus drivers and that the district may provide or coordinate training for otherwise qualified applicants.
In her report, Martinez described the afternoon’s scramble at Bonnie Brennan. “This afternoon, the rain hit hard again. Water was coming in the building. It was coming quick,” she said. Maintenance, transportation and technology staff, aides, custodians and teachers all turned out to help. “So we didn’t have a gigantic flood again,” she said, adding that one or two people would stay at the school overnight to monitor it with more rain in the forecast. The school, which serves third and fourth grades, was closed Sept. 8 and 9 last year after a storm flooded parts of the building. The board president thanked the volunteers for what she called “a really stressful few hours” and said rain has also hit the athletic schedule, with a junior high softball tournament set for Saturday canceled. This comes after major flooding wreaked havoc on the same school last year resulting in part of the school being closed off and shut down temporarily.
One of those helping at Bonnie Brennan was the evening’s classified employee of the month, special education paraprofessional Tracy Herms, who was praised as “a wonderful asset to our school.” Winslow High’s Lani Leonard, recognized as certified employee of the month for her work with the school’s ACT prep program, was not present.
Attendance was on the board president’s mind as well. After hearing from parent liaisons at Monday’s Indian Education Committee meeting, she said, “I was shocked. The tardies were atrocious.” She said the high school is the worst offender even though it moved to a later start time four or five years ago and asked the district’s leadership team to find a fix beyond reminding parents when school starts.
Business Manager Casey Hancock reported that the district had spent about $1.6 million, or 8.6%, of its roughly $19 million maintenance and operations budget through Aug. 31, with 17% of the fiscal year complete. He cautioned that the budget figure is likely a high estimate and said the picture will be clearer in December.
In other business the board:
* Approved past meeting minutes and the ratification list.
* Approved the resignation of Veronica Sanchez, paraprofessional.
* Approved transferring Darlene Lomeli from bus driver to high needs paraprofessional and Felicia Gene from substitute to inclusion paraprofessional.
*Approved the following fundraisers: WES, Walk-a-Thon; WJHS Art Club, Smencils, sports concessions, parking space painting and Halloween dance/concessions; WJHS Book Club, sports concessions; WJHS Student Council, SNAP! Fundraiser and Butter Braids; WHS Book Club, The Love of Books reading night; WHS Criminal Justice Club, snack cart, Fill the Cuff fundraiser; WHS FBLA, Bulldog Brew, adopt-a-duck; WHS Girls Soccer Club, car wash and vertical raise; WHS Growling Productions, print projects; WHS Spiritline, little cheer clinic, game programs, homecoming programs and homecoming dance; WHS S-Club, Valentine’s Day grams; WHS Student Council, club shirts and homecoming dance concessions; WHS Yearbook, 26/27 yearbook, photobooth and senior or business ads; WHS Auxiliary, various items.
* Approved the following WHS extra duty pay: Tyler Allen, band/orchestra; Janeen Barton, yearbook/career center; Cheyne Lowry, student council; Michelle Jones, Honor Society; Denise Estudillo, choir; Kelbie Flake, PAC sound/lights/stage manager.
The board’s next regular meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 30, in the district boardroom at 800 N. Apache Ave.
