Dear Parents,
This message is to advise you of the current situation with gym time that is negatively impacting our program and the approximately 850 children we serve.
As you may or may not be aware, the Tewksbury school gymnasium facilities are utilized by many groups in town throughout the Fall and Winter ranging from the high school teams to adult recreation, youth basketball, etc. In the past, both our program and the girls’ program (TGBL) have been given a block of gym time which has been split roughly 50/50 between the two programs.
Given that we have consistently had, and continue to have, a much larger enrollment of children in our program than exists in the girls program, we have never agreed with this approach. We have never been under the impression that it was open for negotiation, thus we accepted it and made the best of the inequitable situation. We have teams share gyms for practices, purchase additional gym time both inside and outside of Tewksbury, etc.
Now with the introduction of the new Wamesit Warrior program, there is yet another program requiring gym time, we understand and accept this.
The town scheduler (Dave Libby) and new Superintendent (John O’Connor) have asked that the league presidents (TBBL: Ken Miano, TGBL: Joe Salvucci, and Wamesit Warriors: Kent White) work out a schedule that is “satisfactory to all programs”. Unfortunately we were unable to accomplish this in our first meeting and met again last night (Michael P. Kelley Chairperson from the School Committee also attended) and we have been unable to reach what we feel is a fair and equitable agreement.
Based upon what they are asking, we see it impacting our program and children in a very negative way. We will be forced to either reduce practice time or make cuts in the program. Either way, our children are being denied the opportunity for a positive basketball experience due to a situation that is grossly unfair.
We think our proposal is common sense and treats
ALL of the roughly
1200 children who are participating in these youth basketball programs equitably regardless of gender or league. We are asking that the total weekly gym time allotted to each league be assigned by either number of children enrolled in the program or by the type (travel v. in-town) and number of teams in the program. In this model we recognize that it appears to benefit us as we would get the largest block of gym time since our program is the largest in size (TBBL ~850, TGBL ~310, Wamesit Warriors ~40) but we feel strongly it is the most
FAIR and
EQUITABLE approach. For example, if travel teams need 2 hours of practice time per week they should
ALL get that regardless of which program they chose to participate in. These are town facilities paid for by our tax dollars and so the children should have equal access to them.
WHAT DO WE NEED FROM YOU? – YOUR VOICES and SUPPORT!!
We ask that you contact your selectmen, a school committee member, any of the individuals above, or Town Manager Montouri and implore them to treat our program fairly and reach a solution that’s fair to
ALL children in town.
We also invite you to visit our blog and comment on this issue:
http://tbbl.blogspot.com/
Thank you in advance for your support of our efforts!
TBBL Board
School Committee:
http://www.tewksbury.mec.edu/SchoolCommitteeTPS/Contact%20Information.html
Michael P. Kelley – Chairperson Mkelley@tewksbury.com 978-858-0972
Dennis G. Francis - Vice Chairperson dgfrancis4@comcast.net 978-851-2538
Jayne W. Miller jaynewmiller@verizon.net 978 863-0034
Joseph E. Russell 978-851-3418
Krissy M. Polimeno – Clerk philandkristen@comcast.net 978-640-9741
Board of Selectmen:
http://www.tewksbury.info/Pages/TewksburyMA_BComm/BOS/index
Richard Montuori (Sandra Barbeau - Ast to Town Mgr) sbarbeau@tewksbury-ma.gov (978) 640-4300
Todd R. Johnson, Chairman 508-572-0040
Douglas W. Sears, Vice Chairman 978-376-7390
David H. Gay, Clerk 978-694-1625
Anne Marie Stronach, Member 978-851-2062 after 7pm
Scott Wilson, Member 617-921-3361
