Monday, January 13, 2014

Crowd Expected At Monday's DPS Board Meeting; Fate Of Ball Teams Lingers

DHS boys basketball team, 1956-57

The proposed merger of the Dorchester and Milford high school basketball teams is getting a second look.

public meeting by the Dorcheter School Board has been set for this evening, Jan. 13, and it is expected the basketball merger will be revisited.  There is some speculation that a school board member will make a motion to reconsider action taken last month.  

The public is encouraged to attend the 7 p.m. meeting at the school.

In December, the Dorchester Public School Board voted to ask Milford Public Schools to consider permitting a two-year co-op arrangement for girls and boys basketball, similar to what has already been done for football and wrestling. DPS school board members said the vote was hurried due to pending schedules for the 2014-15 basketball season.

A howl of protest followed the move.  An online survey conducted by the Dorchester Times found that of 100 respondents, more than 90% said the school board should rescind its December vote because they want to keep the basketball teams in Dorchester.

A large number of parents and perhaps current DHS basketball players are expected to attend Monday's meeting.

And based on the conversation heard within the school district, it won't just be parents of DPS students who will be attending the school board meeting.
DHS girls basketball team, 1976-77

Several members of the community said there is much concern over the proposed merger among district taxpayers who do not have children, or whose children graduated years ago.  

One rural reader, who children graduated from DHS in the 1980s, e-mailed the Times to say many retirees or near-retirees "worry that busing students to Milford unnecessarily is a waste of precious tax dollars" and "at a time when property taxes are already too high."

She continued by writing, "Busing kids for sports has nothing to do with Nebraska's constitutional guarantee to provide an education.  It sounds like some have limousine tastes despite a Yugo budget. It's not just current parents who pay taxes."

With that, dear readers, we leave you with a quote from Oprah Winfrey:

"Try to take every conflict, every experience, and learn from it. Life is never dull."

6 comments:

  1. I've always liked the Times better than Facebook because I don't have to read snippy little comments made by discontent housewives spreading gossip or ragging on other women they don't like. Please don't turn your blog into the same type of format by running comments like that.

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    1. Too late they already did! Check out the comments about the upcoming Dorchester/Friend basketball games. Talk about snippy snide comments...Stay off the blog Friend Peeps! We should be supporting our team when we are fighting for it, not letting Friend drag us through the mud, but what do you expect...it's Friend

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  2. It's funny, you want us to stay off your blog, but you use our paper for your basketball stories, our doctors, dentist, hospital and pool.

    See you soon
    Friend lover

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    Replies
    1. I like Friend and the people there.

      It's just a couple of the big-money farmer types who try to control things that give that town a bum rap.

      Too bad.

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    2. What exactly is a farmer "type" ? I know farmers, but I don't know what farmer types are. Please clarify. Thanks.

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    3. I used to live in Dorchester and went to high school there in the 80s. This merger should have been done long ago. I never knew the Anonymous family, but it appears to be a large one.

      Delete

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