This story originally appeared in the July 1 edition of the Daily Post. To get the news first, pick up the Post in the mornings at 1,000 Mid-Peninsula locations.
BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
A middle school running coach in Palo Alto has formed his own sports organization to compete with the city’s program, which he says is too expensive and poorly run.
Tom Haxton, head cross country and track and field coach at JLS Middle School, is leading the effort to take on the city, which runs the middle school sports program.
Haxton said his two teams generated $50,585 in revenue for the city last school year using volunteer coaches like himself. Most of the registration fees went to paying five city employees, he said.
“We have been receiving only a basic level of support from these city employees: jerseys that were ordered late, a small amount of equipment, and coverage for a coach who broke her leg, except that we found out later that the covering city employee had been leaving the practices unsupervised,” Haxton said in a petition.
The city wouldn’t provide an end-of-season pizza party or paint a finish line on the track at the Cubberley Community Center, Haxton said.
So Haxton has formed the Palo Alto Middle School Athletics Community Organization to collect registration fees and spend them without the city’s overhead, he said. He is planning on becoming a nonprofit.
Haxton said a petition that he is hoping to help all middle school athletes in Palo Alto that participate in the city-run program.
Other teams could join his nonprofit organization or the city could be pushed to improve its program, Haxton said.
In response, Assistant Director for Community Services Amanda Deml said the city has tried to address Haxton’s concerns. The late jersey orders were a one-time mishap, and every student had one before the start of the season. And the unsupervised practice was because of an unexpected emergency, Deml said.
“Safety is our number one priority, and we take responsibility for this incident,” Deml said. “We made adjustments to ensure this did not and will not happen again.”
The city didn’t provide a pizza party to keep its costs low, Deml said.
“If we provide a pizza party to one team, we need to provide it to all, which we believe would not be the best use of our resources,” she said in an email.
The city is willing to paint the track at Cubberley, but it would have to go through a public process that would take some time, Deml said.
“Running programs like these requires a lot of resources, time, and expertise,” Deml said, doubting if Haxton’s program would be as effective as the city’s program.
“It is essential to maintain clear boundaries and understanding of our respective roles. Engaging in discussions about city-managed sports programs falls outside of PAUSD’s purview and responsibilities,” Austin said in an email to Haxton on June 28.
Deml said that it’s illegal in California for schools to charge students for middle school sports, so many of them run basic programs funded by donations. But without a dedicated budget, it’s hard for schools to maintain strong programs, Deml said. So districts like Palo Alto turn to their local parks and
recreation departments to provide resources, oversight and full-time staff.
Middle school sports are one of the last opportunities for students to participate in sports based on interest rather than skill level, so they are very popular and fill up every year, Deml said. The city has more than 1,200 kids register each year.
Haxton is jockeying for a spot in the Art David Athletic League, which has 14 Peninsula schools that compete in 10 different sports, including three middle schools in Palo Alto.
Haxton’s petition asks Jim Geers, president of the Art David Athletic League, to recognize his team rather than the city’s team.
Haxton said he is expecting the city to field its own team, but his team would be more attractive.
“We think that students will want to compete on a single team with the most athletes and best coaches and families will prefer our lower registration fees,” Haxton said. “If the city does form a second viable
team, we would be happy to combine our teams in competitions.”
Cross country practices start in the fall, followed by track and field in the spring.
The city’s reply about isolated problems and successful resolution is BS. Our middle schooler was in the impossible- to-get-into basketball program run by the city last year.
Halfway into the season, in an email, on a day they had practice, the city coach told the parents he was immediately abandoning the kids as of THAT day due to another city responsibility he had, leaving the kids totally in limbo and unsupervised.
A valiant JLS Mom with Zero basketball experience jumped in to save the season and lead the boys through the rest of their away game schedule and practices.
There was no notice from the city, no refund, no apology, no explanation. The coach even showed up late in the few weeks he was at practice and no-showed at least once. Had no interest in the boys.
This is absurd and shameful and embarrassing for a city like Palo Alto.
We seem to have a massive amount of city workers yet programs and services of terrible quality like middle school sports. And I guess the PACC and City Manager are too busy banning gas stoves to worry about less important matters like middle schoolers having an effective sports program.
City of Palo Alto failing the kids.
BRAVO Coach Haxton! An alternative can’t come soon enough.
Kudos to Mr. Haxton! The City has been totally ineffectual at running middle school athletics. It’s definitely time for a change.
Mr. Cartwright, thank you for writing about our efforts. Community members who want to read more may visit our website at www. pamsaco. org. Our petition can be found there.