To stay or not to stay
Local school board debates team travel policy

Annie Descheny and Genevieve Jackson are sworn in as new board members of the Gallup-McKinley County School District by Judge Kenneth Howard Jr. on Monday. [Photo by Brian Leddy/Independent]

By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — For the first time during the administration of School Superintendent Karen White, the county public school board directed her to ignore a board policy.

And this was one that had been on the books for 22 years.

It occurred at the end of Monday's school board meeting which began with the swearing-in of two new board members, Annie Descheney and Genevieve Jackson.

The subject that caused all of the furor: whether to allow the Gallup High School Lady Bengals to stay overnight while they are competing in the state girls' basketball tournament.

The problem is that in the state competition, winning teams get a day off between games, which means that if the Gallup girls win on Wednesday night, they will have to drive back to Gallup that night, arriving here about 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. and then be picked up by their parents.

They would then have to go to school the next day, attend classes, go to a practice, and then prepare for the trip back to Albuquerque the next day. White said parents could keep their daughters home from school so they could rest, but then their daughters would be ineligible to play because of state athletic rules that require athletes to be in school the day before a game in order to play.

The entire girl's team, along with many of the players' parents, showed up at the school board meeting to protest the practice, saying it is extremely unfair on the girls.

Day of rest
Katrina Benally, one of the players on this year's team, said it was important for the team to be allowed to stay in Albuquerque. Otherwise, she said, the team has to go to school the next day with six hours or less of sleep and this can have a major impact on their playing ability for the rest of the tournament.

Last year, the team stayed overnight and didn't come back to Gallup at any time and won the state championship.

But White pointed out that last year's team didn't have the authority to stay overnight.

"They did it without telling us," she said, adding that coaches were told this year that they had to follow school board policy or face the consequences.

Benally said it wasn't as if the girls had a lot of time on their hands if they stayed overnight. Their times would be strictly structured with practices, watching opposing teams play either in person or on tape and study hours. Curfew would be at 9 p.m. at which times all cell phones would be turned over to the coaches and the team would get up for breakfast at 6 a.m.

Road woes
She and others pointed out that there was also a safety issue. Having the team spend all of that time on the road, much of it after 11 p.m., is not very safe.

White said that as superintendent, her job was to make sure school board policy was followed. "I'm not the Wicked Witch of the West," she said.

She then pointed out some problems with changing the policy at this time.

First, if the district allowed the girls team to stay overnight, federal law under Title 9, required that the same policy be applied to the boys' teams. And while the booster's club for the girls team was paying for the cost of the girls to stay overnight, the district would have to pick up the tab for the boys.

They would also have to pick up the tab to allow the other high school teams that go to the state championship, such as Navajo Pine this year.

Then there is the problem about what would happen if a student left the hotel during the night or something happened. "The school district would be liable," she said.

But both Descheney and Jackson also pointed out that the district would be just as liable if there were an accident going to or from the game.

Travel time
Mike Butkovich, the principal at Gallup High School, pointed out during the meeting that one of the reasons that Gallup has this problem is its fans.

The state tournament schedules the Gallup girls games for 8 p.m. to allow time for Gallup fans to drive to Albuquerque after work to watch their team play. And they come in such large numbers, he said, that it's become very profitable to the state.

Board Member Johnny R. Thompson said the district needs to support the team, and if that means allowing them to stay overnight so they can be rested for the remainder of the tournament, so be it.

Because this was not on the agenda, board members said they couldn't pass a resolution changing the policy. Instead, Thompson proposed a directive which was supported by everyone but the board chairman, Bruce Tempest which allowed, at least temporarily, for school teams to stay overnight during the state championship.

Tempest said he still had some concerns about some of the issues brought up by White, but since the other members of the board were in favor, he congratulated the team on its victory at the Monday meeting.

Thompson said after the meeting that if the former board had been in power, the board would have gone along with the school board policy and supported White.

Brian Bernard, president of the local teacher's union, agreed that this vote shows a marked change in the attitude of the school board.

"Hopefully, this indicates that the times, they are a'changing," he said.

The big question now is where the district will be able to come up with the funds to pay for the overnight stay of teams that don't have a boosters club. Both White and John Samford, assistant superintendent for financial affairs, said there is no budget for this kind of expense.