District to charge fee to attend athletic events

FORT RECOVERY - For the first time ever, the school district will begin charging admittance to junior high athletic events, interim high school Principal Ed Snyder said.

"We've always been resistant to this," Snyder said during the regular school board meeting on Tuesday night, pointing out Fort Recovery is one of the last schools in the area to charge patrons.

Tickets to junior high volleyball and football games will be $3 for adults and $2 for students.

However, both adults and parents who attend multiple events can save money by purchasing a season pass. Students who pay $5 and adults who pay $10 can go to every junior high sporting event, Snyder said.

"We're hoping that that works well," Snyder said about the season pass.

Asked why the district decided to charge, Snyder said due to rising expenses involved with the sports.

"We just felt it's time now because of finances," he said.

Snyder also reported that the number of students playing sports this fall is consistent with previous years.

"Those numbers are okay. Our enrollment is not growing," he said.

There are 30 girls on the volleyball team; nine boys and 16 girls on the cross country team; 11 boys and no girls on the golf team; and 40 boys on the football team.

Though the football rooster is low, Snyder said the coaches still intend to have a junior varsity and freshman team this year.

On Aug. 19, there will be a mandatory Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSA) meeting in the elementary auditeria for all athletes and their parents, Snyder said.

In other news, elementary Principal Shelly Vaughn said the school will hold the open building night and the meet the teacher meetings together before the beginning of the school year.

"We've changed things pretty dramatically from years past," she said.

The joint meetings will be held Aug. 18 for parents of students in K-2 and Aug. 20 for parents of students in third through fifth grades.

"The whole idea behind this kind of schedule is that parents can have some choice about how to plan their evening/evenings and we are hopeful that by building it all into one night, there will be better attendance at those grade level meetings," Vaughn wrote in a recent newsletter.

Vaughn also said the fifth-grade schedule will have a middle school feel this year as a study hall has been added.