BELLEVUE, Wash. - School districts across the state are facing big budget cuts. Bellevue is no exception. But when the district targeted specific athletics, the athletes and their families cried foul.
"Why would you cut a sport that everyone can do and is a lifetime thing?" one parent asked at a budget informational session at Sammamish High School.
Thursday night, the Bellevue School District found itself treading water with a group of angry athletes and their parents.
"If swimming is on the line, if wrestling is on the line, if gymnastics and golf are on the line, why not soccer? Why not football? Why not baseball? And when are they gonna be on the line?" one parent demanded to know.
Hundreds packed into the cafeteria with questions about Bellevue's plunging budget and proposed cuts listed on a district survey.
"The reason why swimming is on the list and some of these other sports has to do with numbers of enrollment and has to do with facilities, the cost of the pool," explained Superintendent Amelia Cudeiro.
"I'm just wondering if 700 and some odd people are a small number?" asked Geoffrey Stokes, a swimmer at Bellevue High School.
Like many other districts, Bellevue is wrestling with some tough choices, needing to cut $6 million from its budget. Many of the proposed cuts have nothing to do with athletics.
"Why is it you want to cut band when we have one of the best jazz band programs in the country?" one girl asked.
"If you would have told me three years ago that my son would be at a school, not just a school, but a district without librarians, I would have thought you were joking," said one parent.
The $6 million that the Bellevue School District is proposing to cut is part of a worst-case scenario. School officials really won't know the actual number until the state legislature finalizes its budget.
Bellevue's next informational budget session is March 24 at 6 p.m. at Interlake High School.
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