More Than Athletes Feeling the Burn
Many athletes are sporting a burn due to the nice new turf at Rich Leenhouts Stadium but the burn is being felt in other places as well. After all the money already being spent on the stadium there is still money being dished out to support the project, but this money doesn’t come from the sports fund, the money that will be going into the new scoreboard is coming from “general fund”. Where does the money come from in the general fund? Money in the general fund comes from ESD and state, only about ten percent comes from tax dollars. State given money and ASB money should not mix, yet it did. The added little boost is being taken from those who have earned it and never got the pay out. The International Club raised money and regretfully did not go on a trip. All those who were in the club have graduated but the money should have been distributed to other clubs, returned to the rightful owners or given to fund the trips of other students who plan to explore internationally. Grandview High School has been getting involved in traveling internationally though it is not through International Club. A few teachers have taken students on service trips to third world countries and plan to take more. The purpose of their mission is to help those in need and experience for themselves both the living conditions and the overall reality of those who live in poverty stricken places. An outside source had emailed the administrators asking to use the money from International fund to help their humbling pursuits and to relieve the mass amount of money needed to attend the trip. However, they were denied. The reason for being denied was said to be that it would be unfair to lets other students use money raised by another. In the reply back the administrators made it clear that the money would instead be turned of to general projects, sports. How absurd is it that it would be unfair to use the money on a service trip and yet more just to use it on a stadium that has already taken tons of money and tons of time.
A GEMS representatives meeting asked all those in favor to agree to spend the money on the scoreboard with no knowledge that others could possibly have used the money to go on their service quest. Though many were not pleased with the idea they mindlessly agreed because they did not know that they could have made a change, were pressured or they just didn’t care how the money way being spent. So it was decided what the money would be spent on without offering any other ideas that would have been more beneficial. School clubs also report feeling cheated out of the money because they feel the money should have been distributed evenly between them and not given instead to the intensely favored sport. The blow that all are feeling is worth than the burn that the privileged athletes are sporting.
