Mar 6, 2019 By Terry J. Boors 3 min read

Two months earlier, an article appeared in the Herald-Standard regarding the Uniontown School District and whether or not it should hire a consultant to evaluate it’s football program. The month before that the Albert Gallatin School District’s Board of Education made the decision to have the football team stop competing in the W.P.I.A.L. because of the complexities of playing against larger schools and the difficulties their football team has been having for a number of years.

Do any of you readers see a similarity here? It’s not the kids in the school districts, their parents, the coaches or school boards, it’s the unfair nature by which the money-hungry governing organizations put our high school students into a situation with little if any chance to succeed!

I think the school board directors of each and every district in Fayette County need to form a “task force” and have a meeting with each other to discuss the common problems that are faced trying to compete with schools in more economically stable areas outside of Fayette County.

We have a higher number of students getting “free and reduced lunches,” and we have a higher number of students who are placed into the category of “special need.” A lot of these young men and women are working after school because of the economic challenges many of their parent’s face. I wonder if our athletic directors have ever done a survey of these two groups of students to see how many of them participate in their school districts sports programs, or if the individual school boards have thought about these issues before?

The W.P.I.A.L and the P.I.A.A do not take into account the economic issues our school districts are faced with when it comes to budgets and available tax revenues. Many of our young men and women are discriminated against every day because of the unfair and unequal method by which they are forced to compete.

The method is a simple one to understand. How many male and female students do you have in grades 9-12? Do you realize that the North Allegheny School District has 1,089 male students in grades 9-12? Alas, none of our schools have to compete against them since they are two to three times larger than any school district in Fayette County. Playoff games are few and far between at local gymnasiums or football stadiums with $600,000 turf fields we are forced to install because of the type of weather we have in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

My wish is for each and every child to have the ability to compete on a level playing field in sports and have the opportunity to experience success in the sport they play no matter where they live in Fayette County. Something must be done to rectify the current discriminatory methods of the W.P.I.A.L and the P.I.A.A. or your school will be next as it eliminates more athletic programs for your children!

Terry J. Boors is a resident of Connellsville and a retired professional educator of the Connellsville Area School District.