By Joe Olenick
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal
MIDDLEPORT —
Modified sports are back in play this fall for Royalton-Hartland seventh-, eighth- and ninth-graders.
Board of Education members voted last week to bring back modified cross country, girls volleyball and boys and girls soccer. The district had planned to cut modified sports from the budget this school year because of financial hardships, but the Roy-Hart Sports Boosters club stepped in.
“The club donated the money for fall modified sports,” Superintendent Kevin MacDonald said.
Boosters presented the $7,587 donation to the board last week. Boosters club President Rick DeWaters said the group had held a variety of fundraising events, some of which are still continuing. The group is still selling discount cards for local businesses and will continue to run the concession stand at football and soccer games. A chowder sale and a raffle in the spring are just a few of the fundraising events the boosters have coming up in the future.
The boosters received a $500 donation from FMC and some private donations from parents for the fall, DeWaters said. The boosters also have picked up some new members along the way.
“The parents have really stepped up,” DeWaters said. “They’ve pitched in. This has always been a giving community.”
DeWaters said the boosters will continue to raise money for the winter modified sports. It’s going to be a challenge, as it could take roughly $13,000 to bring the sports back.
For students who are interested in playing a modified sport this fall, there is a mandatory meeting at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday in the high school gym, 54 State St., Middleport. To join the boosters or make a donation, the club can be found on the district’s website, www.royhart.org. Click on the athletics tab, then the sports boosters link. Donations can also be mailed to Roy-Hart Sports Boosters, P.O. Box 298, Middleport, NY.
This isn’t the first time the boosters have stepped in to save a Roy-Hart sport. In May, the district had planned to cut football from the 2010-11 spending plan, as a result of financial issues such as the $1.5 million loss in state aid. Football and modified sports were among a number of cuts in the $22.1 million budget, which was approved May 18 by voters.
Shortly after the budget vote, boosters donated $20,312 to save football. District coaches also made some additional cuts to their budgets.
Locally, Newfane has also cut modified sports for the 2010-11 school year. But district officials said they will be using intramurals to replace modified sports.
In other district news, MacDonald said the classroom addition to the elementary school was nearing completion. The addition, the first half of the district’s $8.3 million capital project, is a 10-classroom wing that the Orleans/Niagara Board of Cooperative Educational Services will lease.
The second phase is a series of upgrades and improvements made to the high school. MacDonald said the second phase is in its final review stages with the state education department.
The project was approved by voters in January 2008.
Contact reporter Joe Olenick at 439-9222, ext. 6241.
