By Brian Kelly
Herald Writer
MARYSVILLE — Marysville School District officials gave a long-awaited report on the district’s controversial investigation of its athletics program Monday night, but few new details came to light.
The investigation has been underway since February, and was started by the school board after a small group of parents raised vague complaints that coaches had harassed and intimidated student athletes.
Those complaints led to the district hiring a consultant at $160 an hour to investigate the athletic program.
Coaches were told earlier that the investigation uncovered no instances where district employees harassed or intimidated student athletes.
But at Monday’s school board meeting, most of the presentation centered on phase two of the investigation — the two nights of electronic surveys of parents and students conducted last week at district headquarters.
That survey, too, steered clear of hot-button issues like coaching staff harassment and intimidation of players.
Even so, the investigation and survey has left coaches wondering how much district officials really care about the work they do.
Superintendent Linda Whitehead acknowledged the elephant in the room at the start of her report on the investigation. She recalled meeting with a coach on Friday, who asked if she thought coaches ran an athletics program that was too negative. Whitehead said she didn’t, and said the district wasn’t looking to pull the plug on sports.
"This is something that we value, and this is something that we want to continue," Whitehead said.
She touched very briefly on the first phase of the investigation, where parents, players and district employees were interviewed by the district’s consultant. She said some felt the district’s rules and regulations were not being applied fairly to all the players, and communication problems existed between parents and those involved in sports programs.
Mostly, Whitehead focused on the electronic surveying done last week. Roughly 100 people, about two-thirds of them parents and the rest students, took the 24-question survey.
Aside from the first seven questions — which asked what sports the student had played, and the student’s school, gender or grade level — the surveys were basically the same for both parents and students.
For students who took the survey, most attended Marysville-Pilchuck High School, and 85 percent were in grades 10 through 12.
According to the survey results, most students were confident they understood the district’s athletic code, which prohibits the use of alcohol, drugs, tobacco and inappropriate language, but also contains academic and attendance requirements. A majority also said the code was enforced most of the time, with 54 percent saying alcohol use was the most noticeable violation of the code, with the use of inappropriate language coming in second (41 percent).
And on the topic of the district’s pay-to-play policy, 67 percent of the students polled said they knew someone who wasn’t in sports because of the pay-to-play rule. For parents, 63 percent said they knew someone who wasn’t participating in sports because of the new fee structure.
As far as things that coaches can control, students said sportsmanship and team play were emphasized above winning, which was students’ number-one priority, according to the survey.
Most students felt the district’s athletic facilities were excellent, or at least well-maintained and modern, but 68 percent of those polled said they’d like to see updated equipment.
The survey of parents — which followed the same format of gathering anonymous opinions via electronic, hand-held keypads — quizzed mostly those who had high schoolers in the house; 76 percent identified themselves as parents of students at Marysville-Pilchuck High School.
Although adults who responded to the survey agreed that the use of alcohol and inappropriate language were the two most noticeable violations of the district’s athletic code, 18 percent of those surveyed said violations of academic requirements was the third-most visible problem area. Students surveyed said tobacco use rated third.
Parents also split with students on what they wanted to see prioritized in the athletic program, with parents favoring sportsmanship and skill development. "Winning" as a priority finished sixth out of seven.
The survey results will be used to refine the format of an upcoming focus group that will be devoted to athletic department issues. District officials hope the focus group will come up with ideas for improving problem areas of the athletics program.
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