Should CMS slash sports?

As CMS looks for big-ticket, non-academic items to slash from next year's budget, some of you have asked about the cost and value of sports.

A presentation on that topic is slated for Tuesday night's school board meeting, and there's some interesting advance info posted with the agenda. High-school athletics has a $3.4 million budget covered by county money, while middle-school sports is budgeted for $1.25 million.

The various fees and charges designed to cover the cost of middle-school sports have brought in just over $725,000 so far this year, with another $322,000 coming in from community donations, according to the report (the spring season is still to come). As I understand Superintendent Peter Gorman's plan for 2011-12, middle-school sports would go away, leaving the high-school participation fees and ticket surcharge to help offset the cost of high-school athletics.

Expect to hear more about this proposal Tuesday. The sports report is slated late in what promises to be a long meeting, starting at 6 p.m.; watch live on CMS-TV Cable 3 or online. Gorman and soon-to-retire Athletic Director Vicki Hamilton will flesh that information out at a Wednesday morning news conference.

Cutting middle-school sports is not one of the early-decision items on Tuesday's agenda, so expect board members to continue debating and asking questions into this spring. As always, if you want to give them your views directly, there are contact links with this blog.