Last week the Foothill League met to discuss athletics in its quarterly meeting. Water Polo was slated to be on the agenda based on our progress in getting this approved for the fall of 08. This meeting is attended by each principal and his athletic directors.
As many of you recall we have tried for over a year to get invited to participate in these meetings unsuccessfully. Well we finally got our chance with an invitation to attend and be available for questions as they came up by the attendee’s.
Rob Gapper who has been the district sponsor led off the discussion letting all in attendance that we have been working with the district on implementing a program and the detailed investigation we have gone through to prove the program in terms of cost and implementation.
Many good questions came from the forum that Rob & I addressed. At the close of comments the forum was asked if there was a need to for a Polo subcommittee to further research the program and the group said no, that since the principals had been the primary team to this point that they should continue to see this through to implementation as no fatal flaws were identified.
This is good news. The principals really have only 2 hang ups of which one has been solved, and the other (transportation) is on a path to resolution. The principals are looking for a specific increase in the transportation budget to cover Polo, just like they do for every other sport. Rob has taken this concept back to the Superintendant and we are awaiting final confirmation that the district will be able to provide the additional transport funding.
I speaking with Rob, and other attendees of the Foothill League meeting we are still on the path to go in front of the school board for approval in Jan. As the meeting date is identified I will be sure to let you know as it would be great to see a nice showing to this final piece of the puzzle.
An another note Jim Ferguson, Coach Loporchio and I met with the Aquatic center and Regional Director for US Water Polo just before Thanksgiving to discuss bringing the Men’s Masters Water Polo finals to the Aquatic Center. This would really help bring some great publicity to the sport and the facility. We also discussed ways USWP can help the district implement a program once the final approval has been granted by the board.
It is getting very exciting now and we really appreciate all your support with letters and words of encouragement. It is my hope to see our kids competing next year at the aquatic center.
See you at the pool.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Update for 11/02
Had an opportunity to meet with Rob Gapper again this past week to discuss progress on getting polo back in the district. Had a bit of a stall with the activity around the fires, but are back on track here I think.
We are working the details around funding for the program. During our meetings last month it was determined that the district would pull in the Coaching Stipend (cost for coaches) under their responsibility. This is typical for all other sports. From the last ADCO meeting the only remaining issue is the cost of transport. The district is also investigating taking this charge in too. This decision has not been made yet. I have spoken with Mr. Gapper and made sure he understands that we would rather have a program that requires some investment by the parents for transport than not have a program at all. He is arranging a meeting with Castellanos to review our progress and get a go for the district transport support. We are pressing for this meeting in advance of the ADCO meeting this Wed.
The remaining steps in this process are.
Get Transport funding finalized by the district - Hope to be solved by 11/15.
Get Foothill league approval - Should be fairly easy as the principals have essentially give the go ahead. I have a call into the foothill league president to determine the next meeting date for the league meeting to make sure this is on the agenda
Get Hart District Board approval – Mr. Gapper has suggested we target the Jan meeting of the board, and the agenda for the meetings between now and then are packed. This is one where we will need your support at the meeting. When details are available I will be sure to let you know well in advance.
I know this is taking forever, but we are making some progress I believe so keep positive and hopefully we will have something more definitive in the near future.
See you at the pool
Jeff
We are working the details around funding for the program. During our meetings last month it was determined that the district would pull in the Coaching Stipend (cost for coaches) under their responsibility. This is typical for all other sports. From the last ADCO meeting the only remaining issue is the cost of transport. The district is also investigating taking this charge in too. This decision has not been made yet. I have spoken with Mr. Gapper and made sure he understands that we would rather have a program that requires some investment by the parents for transport than not have a program at all. He is arranging a meeting with Castellanos to review our progress and get a go for the district transport support. We are pressing for this meeting in advance of the ADCO meeting this Wed.
The remaining steps in this process are.
Get Transport funding finalized by the district - Hope to be solved by 11/15.
Get Foothill league approval - Should be fairly easy as the principals have essentially give the go ahead. I have a call into the foothill league president to determine the next meeting date for the league meeting to make sure this is on the agenda
Get Hart District Board approval – Mr. Gapper has suggested we target the Jan meeting of the board, and the agenda for the meetings between now and then are packed. This is one where we will need your support at the meeting. When details are available I will be sure to let you know well in advance.
I know this is taking forever, but we are making some progress I believe so keep positive and hopefully we will have something more definitive in the near future.
See you at the pool
Jeff
Friday, October 12, 2007
10/12/07 Update
Been a busy week for Polo this week. Had meetings with 2 principals and the district this week. On Tuesday we had a meeting with Bob Messina of Canyon to discuss our proposal. I think we cleared up some issues relative to travel and the program and helped him get more comfortable with the program. This is good because he had not supported the proposal to this point.
Also met with Rob Gapper at the district office on Tuesday. It was a good meeting. The district thinking is beginning to evolve on the program. I think they are now leaning towards taking the coach stipends under their responsibility as they do with all other sports. I think this approach makes sense and prevents the temptation of parents calling for the removal of a coach if they don't have a winning record. I was also able to provide Mr Gapper with a comparison of the proposal we made vs. the actual numbers from Royal High in Simi. Royal has a very successful program that is self funded so they would make a great program to model from. Interestingly our proposal compared very favorably with the Royal program. Some Numbers were a little higher,or lower, but when you sum them up it was very even.
On Wed the principals got together for their bi-weekly meeting with the district where the topic of Polo was discussed. Gapper presented our findings from Royal and I think helped to calm some of the concerns about our proposal being a Bare Bones program since we had Real Numbers from another program to compare it to. We owe a big thanks to the Royal program for their assistance.
Also met with the Hart principal today and from that conversation it sounds like the principals have come to the conclusion that they can support the program if they can get some protection on unexpected costs related to transport. In a follow up call with Gapper I know the district is working on this. Our original proposal had money in for transport in the Spirit Packs so that may also be an avenue if the district can't find the extra money for the transport as the principals have requested.
I would say that I am very optimistic as we have a supporter at the district who has continued to represent the program to the principals and I think the principals have finally come to the realization that it is not really as complicated as once thought.
Will be following up with the district in the coming week. I would like to push for a favorable outcome at the next bi-weekly meeting on transportation and we can probably call this thing done. Thanks for all your support at the schools I am sure the principals have taken this into consideration as they have weighed the merits of the program.
See you at the pool
Jeff
Also met with Rob Gapper at the district office on Tuesday. It was a good meeting. The district thinking is beginning to evolve on the program. I think they are now leaning towards taking the coach stipends under their responsibility as they do with all other sports. I think this approach makes sense and prevents the temptation of parents calling for the removal of a coach if they don't have a winning record. I was also able to provide Mr Gapper with a comparison of the proposal we made vs. the actual numbers from Royal High in Simi. Royal has a very successful program that is self funded so they would make a great program to model from. Interestingly our proposal compared very favorably with the Royal program. Some Numbers were a little higher,or lower, but when you sum them up it was very even.
On Wed the principals got together for their bi-weekly meeting with the district where the topic of Polo was discussed. Gapper presented our findings from Royal and I think helped to calm some of the concerns about our proposal being a Bare Bones program since we had Real Numbers from another program to compare it to. We owe a big thanks to the Royal program for their assistance.
Also met with the Hart principal today and from that conversation it sounds like the principals have come to the conclusion that they can support the program if they can get some protection on unexpected costs related to transport. In a follow up call with Gapper I know the district is working on this. Our original proposal had money in for transport in the Spirit Packs so that may also be an avenue if the district can't find the extra money for the transport as the principals have requested.
I would say that I am very optimistic as we have a supporter at the district who has continued to represent the program to the principals and I think the principals have finally come to the realization that it is not really as complicated as once thought.
Will be following up with the district in the coming week. I would like to push for a favorable outcome at the next bi-weekly meeting on transportation and we can probably call this thing done. Thanks for all your support at the schools I am sure the principals have taken this into consideration as they have weighed the merits of the program.
See you at the pool
Jeff
Friday, September 28, 2007
9/28 update
As many of you know the Principals were to get together for their bi-weekly meeting on Wed 9/26. Polo was on the agenda, but this week there was also a budget meeting which cut into their normal time available, so no discussion on Polo.
Not an entirely bad thing as what the principals seem to struggle with is what the “real costs” of the polo program will be. I have established a good contact with US Water Polo who has helped with getting budget numbers from other existing programs, and also hooked us up with the org who arranges for officials for CIF. This info will help us move some of our budget estimates to “hard” numbers which will be difficult for the principals to dispute. I am also working with another High School who has a very successful Polo program. They have committed to get me their full budget by 10/1. This one is important since it is a completely self funded program like we propose to be. We have discussed several points like transportation with them already and we are very comparable in our assumptions to their actual numbers.
The next meeting will be on 10/10, and I will again try to get invited. They have resisted this in the past and don’t even allow board members to attend. I don’t think the Manhattan Project had anything on these guys. In any event I will get with Rob Gapper COO of the district in advance to review our latest finding described above.
For those of you who may have missed an opportunity to talk with your respective principal now is your chance! They need to hear from you at this critical time. You can also drop them a note. Just go to http://www.hartdistrict.org/ and go to schools, select yours and the principal has an e-mail address right there.
Have a great weekend and see you at the pool.
Jeff
Not an entirely bad thing as what the principals seem to struggle with is what the “real costs” of the polo program will be. I have established a good contact with US Water Polo who has helped with getting budget numbers from other existing programs, and also hooked us up with the org who arranges for officials for CIF. This info will help us move some of our budget estimates to “hard” numbers which will be difficult for the principals to dispute. I am also working with another High School who has a very successful Polo program. They have committed to get me their full budget by 10/1. This one is important since it is a completely self funded program like we propose to be. We have discussed several points like transportation with them already and we are very comparable in our assumptions to their actual numbers.
The next meeting will be on 10/10, and I will again try to get invited. They have resisted this in the past and don’t even allow board members to attend. I don’t think the Manhattan Project had anything on these guys. In any event I will get with Rob Gapper COO of the district in advance to review our latest finding described above.
For those of you who may have missed an opportunity to talk with your respective principal now is your chance! They need to hear from you at this critical time. You can also drop them a note. Just go to http://www.hartdistrict.org/ and go to schools, select yours and the principal has an e-mail address right there.
Have a great weekend and see you at the pool.
Jeff
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Welcome back to school . There has been quite a bit of activity with water polo over the summer and recently. Try to get you caught up.
As some of you may know Hart has a new principal, which has been a huge boon to our effort. I met with him several times over the summer to talk polo. The idea being once he started the new year polo may not be as high on his list of things to do. After several successful meetings discussing our proposal for a no cost program we got coach Neale involved and came to the joint conclusion that Hart should do a pilot program to prove the concept.
We discussed this with the district COO Rob Gapper who also agreed with the concept. His action item for Nielsen was to have him get approval from the other principals. This is where we hit a huge roadblock. All of the sudden they realized the pressure they face by one school going it alone and the parent/players of the other 5 saying why not us?
For those of you who are Hart parents/players you should make a special effort to thank Dr. Nielsen for taking a stand for the program in the face of opposition and sticking to his position. Being the new principal in the gang of 6 it would have been easy to wilt under pressure and go with the flow. He did not.This courageous stand has driven the principals to come to the conclusion that there should be no pilot, but that we should just do it at all the schools.
As of today GV , and Saugus have also given their suppor to the program. If you are associated with those schools you need to let them know that you support their decision and look forward to a sucessful program in the fall of 08. Please do this, now is not the time to let up, and I don't want them to regress.
If you are associated with WR/V/C, you need to talk with them and ask them to support water polo. Right now we have a 3-3 tie so let's push one of these over the edge. Again they need to hear from you. If you pick your kid up, or do a drop off in the AM take the extra time to go to the admin building and ask to speak to the principal. Sometimes this is the only way to get through, and it makes the office admins very nervous to have a parent standing over their desk, so they will shuffle you off to the principal quickly. Again it is an extra effort, but you are they customer here, so take the time to let them know you are not satisfied with their stand on Polo. The key question to ask is "can I count on your support for Polo at the ADCO meeting on 9/26, and if not why do some of the other principals get it and you are struggling?
Timing is important here. There is a District meeting with the principals on 9/26 where this will be a topic of discussion. It was also a topic at the meeting on 9/12. Please have the conversation before the 26th.
The biggest hitch voiced by the principals has been funding. Our proposal to them shows a no cost program to the district with very average spirit pack costs, and fundraising efforts. Some of the principals question the reliability of this funding even though every team I have seen in the district uses this exact same means to fund their sport. You have kids/siblings/friends in other sports in the district I need to know the following...
EXAMPLE
School Hart
Sport Soccer
Level JV
Spirit Pack cost 300
Fund raising required 100
I need this for as many schools/sports in the district as I can get this week if possible.
This is a deliverable to the district COO to help him with the principals who question the funding methods. We have our 3rd meeting in 3 weeks with the COO this Friday, so Jim Ferguson & I will be taking this info in to discuss in advance of the 9/26 meeting. I am tired of typing and you are tired of reading. Contact your school, thank them for their support, or ask them for it, and get me anything you can on the other sport costs this week.
Thanks in advance for you help. I think we have the district moving in the right direction. They have taken time to meet with us the 3 successive weeks so I hope they would not do it if they were not seriously considering adding Polo.
Also if there are any parents who would be interested in being the parent sponsors for GV I would appreciate the help, so let me know. Not an awful lot to do outside of being a liaison with the school to help facilitate the program. Let me know.
Timing is important here. There is a District meeting with the principals on 9/26 where this will be a topic of discussion. It was also a topic at the meeting on 9/12. Please have the conversation before the 26th.
I am tired of typing and you are tired of reading. Contact your school, thank them for their support, or ask them for it, and get me anything you can on the other sport costs this week.
Thanks in advance for you help. I think we have the district moving in the right direction. They have taken time to meet with us the 3 successive weeks so I hope they would not do it if they were not seriously considering adding Polo.
Any questions, don't be shy, and if you know someone who supports polo please forward this on to them. Hopefully the boys playing polo this time next year, and the girls are practicing for their season starting in NOV.
See you at the pool
Jeff
As some of you may know Hart has a new principal, which has been a huge boon to our effort. I met with him several times over the summer to talk polo. The idea being once he started the new year polo may not be as high on his list of things to do. After several successful meetings discussing our proposal for a no cost program we got coach Neale involved and came to the joint conclusion that Hart should do a pilot program to prove the concept.
We discussed this with the district COO Rob Gapper who also agreed with the concept. His action item for Nielsen was to have him get approval from the other principals. This is where we hit a huge roadblock. All of the sudden they realized the pressure they face by one school going it alone and the parent/players of the other 5 saying why not us?
For those of you who are Hart parents/players you should make a special effort to thank Dr. Nielsen for taking a stand for the program in the face of opposition and sticking to his position. Being the new principal in the gang of 6 it would have been easy to wilt under pressure and go with the flow. He did not.This courageous stand has driven the principals to come to the conclusion that there should be no pilot, but that we should just do it at all the schools.
As of today GV , and Saugus have also given their suppor to the program. If you are associated with those schools you need to let them know that you support their decision and look forward to a sucessful program in the fall of 08. Please do this, now is not the time to let up, and I don't want them to regress.
If you are associated with WR/V/C, you need to talk with them and ask them to support water polo. Right now we have a 3-3 tie so let's push one of these over the edge. Again they need to hear from you. If you pick your kid up, or do a drop off in the AM take the extra time to go to the admin building and ask to speak to the principal. Sometimes this is the only way to get through, and it makes the office admins very nervous to have a parent standing over their desk, so they will shuffle you off to the principal quickly. Again it is an extra effort, but you are they customer here, so take the time to let them know you are not satisfied with their stand on Polo. The key question to ask is "can I count on your support for Polo at the ADCO meeting on 9/26, and if not why do some of the other principals get it and you are struggling?
Timing is important here. There is a District meeting with the principals on 9/26 where this will be a topic of discussion. It was also a topic at the meeting on 9/12. Please have the conversation before the 26th.
The biggest hitch voiced by the principals has been funding. Our proposal to them shows a no cost program to the district with very average spirit pack costs, and fundraising efforts. Some of the principals question the reliability of this funding even though every team I have seen in the district uses this exact same means to fund their sport. You have kids/siblings/friends in other sports in the district I need to know the following...
EXAMPLE
School Hart
Sport Soccer
Level JV
Spirit Pack cost 300
Fund raising required 100
I need this for as many schools/sports in the district as I can get this week if possible.
This is a deliverable to the district COO to help him with the principals who question the funding methods. We have our 3rd meeting in 3 weeks with the COO this Friday, so Jim Ferguson & I will be taking this info in to discuss in advance of the 9/26 meeting. I am tired of typing and you are tired of reading. Contact your school, thank them for their support, or ask them for it, and get me anything you can on the other sport costs this week.
Thanks in advance for you help. I think we have the district moving in the right direction. They have taken time to meet with us the 3 successive weeks so I hope they would not do it if they were not seriously considering adding Polo.
Also if there are any parents who would be interested in being the parent sponsors for GV I would appreciate the help, so let me know. Not an awful lot to do outside of being a liaison with the school to help facilitate the program. Let me know.
Timing is important here. There is a District meeting with the principals on 9/26 where this will be a topic of discussion. It was also a topic at the meeting on 9/12. Please have the conversation before the 26th.
I am tired of typing and you are tired of reading. Contact your school, thank them for their support, or ask them for it, and get me anything you can on the other sport costs this week.
Thanks in advance for you help. I think we have the district moving in the right direction. They have taken time to meet with us the 3 successive weeks so I hope they would not do it if they were not seriously considering adding Polo.
Any questions, don't be shy, and if you know someone who supports polo please forward this on to them. Hopefully the boys playing polo this time next year, and the girls are practicing for their season starting in NOV.
See you at the pool
Jeff
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