Tonight the Board of Education held a meeting at Parsippany High School where they discussed cutting the athletic teams' budget by $83,000--that's approximately $40,000 from each side of town. Their original plan was to cut swimming, golf, and hockey... basically all the teams that have to practice at an off-school campus facility.

For more than an hour an astounding number of people stood up and presented their cases against this idea. In the end the Board decided to agree to the $83,000 cut, but they would save the debate for how the cuts were to be distributed for a later meeting.

So right now the best case scenario is that all athletic teams get equal percentages of budget cuts. In the worst case scenario, the three aforementioned teams get completely annihilated or something, to put it frankly, CRAPPY like that.

It's not good enough.

The problem with this debate isn't over how the cut is to be distributed. That implies that the decision to cut the budget was already passed, and it was. We cannot change it now. No, our problem lies instead in the participation of everyone who are affected by decisions such as this one.

For several years in a row now, the school referendums, meaning the budget proposals for the upcoming school year, have been soundly defeated, mostly by a group of actively conservative senior citizens who have no children and yet live in big, expensive houses that really rack up their taxes. Okay, I'm kidding, I don't know if they are Republicans or Democrats and I don't know where they live. But in my freshman year, two years ago, the referendum was defeated by nearly a 3-to-1 ratio of nays to yeas.

The Parsippany Troy Hills school district educates approximately 7,000 students. That's approximately, oh, let's say 3,500 parents/guardians, if we assume that many students are related. If every single parent went out and voted on the night of the referendum, the school budget would have been passed and student athletes would NOT be worrying about what the hell is going to get cut next year. (Not to mention we would've also gotten a bunch of cool stuff.)

The reactions of different district employees at the meeting were interesting. Here is a sample, as told to me by friends who had heard it earlier in the meeting:

- Some lady: I would resign from my job and give my $5,000 pension [something like that] to the athletics department!

- Lunch ladies: Maybe they should stop giving us a raise every single year. Every other year is good enough.

How's that for supporting educational purposes?

It shouldn't be all about the money. What it comes down to is diversity. We students are at an age where we are dying to try out different things, to see which one strikes our fancy and lights the fire in our hearts. Two years ago they cut the drama department from PHHS, not because there wasn't enough interest, but because the higher authorities deemed the program unnecessary.

I don't want to be here the day that all art and music programs are decimated, and the only sports left will be the Big Three: football, basketball, and baseball. I don't want my theoretical kids to go to schools where they won't be able to experiment with these different programs. I don't think YOU would want YOUR kids to live in a world where football, basketball, and baseball are the dictators of high school sports. Not only is it a throwback to machismo (male dominance and superiority, for how many girls are on the football team??), it also equates a student athlete to only being a person who plays at least one of the Big Three.

Currently there are hundreds of student athletes at PHHS. I myself am a student athlete. But should the future of high school athletics come down to the Big Three, the only admired student athletes would be those who weigh 200 pounds, measure in at six-foot-three, and hit home runs like a mofo. And I, along with, oh, 90% of the student population, would definitely not fit in any of those categories. It would mean that my swimming accomplishments, or my classmates' breaking records in track, or the soccer team's excellent reputation, would all come to nada. Who, us? Student athletes? Nahhh. After all, we wouldn't have the opportunity to do what we have done.

Limiting choices for this fragile, blooming age group (however sappy that may sound, it is true: we are growing and need the diversity to find out what we really like to do) will lead to a nation of like-minded, synchronized people who cannot think for themselves. The human race is about differences. That's what makes us, us. Too many students already zombie-walk through school apathetically and then have no idea what they're interested in and what they want to do with their lives. They end up majoring in something generic and then sit in a cubicle for the rest of their seemingly never-ending bore of a life, never seeing daylight and only coming out at night to drink their woes away. (Like evil, human-hating vampires.)

Do we need an education system that would actually promote this...this blandness? I want to meet people who have passion, who have dreams. They are never going to get this unless they are given the opportunity to experiment with choices.

You might be wondering what this has to do with the athletic program budget cut, since beyond college few people actually participate in sports anyway. (Hence the development of couch potato-ism and beerbellies. Oh, and heart attacks at 35.) I guess this has more to do with extracurriculars in general. I happen to be very active in PHHS's music program, which I know gets caught under the shit all the time for being an unnecessary luxury. Marching band? Pssh, who needs marching band? And no one comes to the jazz band concert anyway; why should we continue it?

Is that what you think? Anyone who thinks this should meet the people in the jazz band. These are the hardcore musicians: talented, confident, amazing people. Some of the most motivated people I have ever known are in that band room every Wednesday after school until 4:30. Maybe they wouldn't have discovered their talent and passion if the school hadn't offered the music program. What would they have done then? I don't want to see them sitting at desks sorting through papers until they're old and wrinkly.

At the bottom line, what is more important: money or heart? Money cannot buy you passion, cannot buy you love--except love for more money. I'm not going to settle for cutting our choices. Like the lunch lady said, most teachers would go without a raise every year in order for their students' education to be the fullest and best. If they were not willing, they wouldn't be teaching in the first place.

The Board of Education is going to hold another meeting in about a month. They will discuss how exactly the budget cuts are going to be distributed amongst the teams. I urge you all to go up there and say your part in it. Swimmers, golfers, hockey players, football players, musicians, thespians... all of you go. This isn't just a question of whether or not I will have a school sport to do next year. This is about whether or not we should let suit-wearing men and women who do NOT walk through PHS's unheated hallways in the middle of winter, who do NOT attend matches and meets and championships, who probably do not even talk to high-schoolers--This is about whether or not we should let these people decide what choices we are allowed. If the higher authorities get their way this time, it opens the way for them to do more of this in upcoming years: to cut music programs, art department funding, more sports teams, even the selection of courses we have.

The problem and solution both lie within ourselves--and our parents, since we are not legally emancipated. I encourage more active participation from the people who these decisions affect. Those of legal age, vote. Those not of legal age...well, encourage your parents to vote. Form petitions. Make your voice be heard. Speak up at these Board of Ed meetings. The Board members do not hate adolescents; tonight, they were extremely impressed by the number of young people who stood up and made their points in intelligent, mature speeches. They WANT to hear more from us.

Let's make sure they get what they want.

Spread the word about this article, readers, and thank you so much for your time.

- Stephanie Su

as of now:

1. ap calc - berkowitz
2. french 3 h - gomez
3. health mp1 - bernabe
3. gym mp2,3,4 - klebez
4. english 3 h - kadar
5. ap chem 2 - pompei
6. wind ensemble h - decicco/trimmer
7. apush 2 - maccarella
8. creative writing - brown
9. ap chem 2 lab mon, tues - pompei

chem or no chem?