In the wake of the Streetsboro School District’s failure to pass a $7M five-year operating levy in May, the Streetsboro Board of Education approved a pair of motions to return club activities and middle schools sports to the School District last Thursday evening at Streetsboro High School.
“If we are in a place about bringing back clubs, minimum participation ensures we are covering the cost and we also need to look at paying before playing so to speak,” Board President Tracy Campbell said.
Prior to the School District’s attempt to pass the operating levy, last November, the Board voted to eliminate club activities, middle school sports and junior varsity spring sports in as a way of cutting costs.
Although the operating levy failed, the Board decided that it was important for the students to bring back club activities and middle school sports.
According to Campbell, the clubs that the Board was voting to bring back were all the clubs that had previously existed before the Board eliminated them last November.
Superintendent Cynthia Devers said that the Board needed to be mindful of bringing back clubs that had minimal student participation.
“If we have less than five to 10 kids specifically, is this something we need to keep moving forward with?” she asked the Board. “This is a conversation that has been had each year by the administration team.”
School District Chief Business Officer C.J. Scarcipino suggested that the Board needed to draft a formal policy about funding for each club.
“There is not a formal policy on it right now.,” he added. “We need to be cognizant and have a universal policy if dues are not paid, here is what happens. Don’t institute this without that policy in play and have it be the wild west in terms of collections.”
The Board discussed charging students’ families a participation fee in order to allow students to join clubs. There was a unanimous consensus that students would be allowed to join as many clubs as they desired.
Ultimately, Devers drafted a motion for the Board of Education to reinstate all clubs cancelled in the November 2025 Board of Education meeting with a pay to participate fee of $50 per student per club that is paid in full prior to the first club meeting for the 2026-27 school year.
The motion carried unanimously.
The Board then discussed the reinstatement of middle school athletics.
Board Member Kelly Rich raised a concern that all athletic programs had too many coaches on staff.
“Each sport does not need to have as many coaches as they have,” she noted. “One sport does not need four coaches. I know it is not the OHSAA guidelines because two of them have been added the last year. I want that looked at.”
Devers acknowledged that the Board had held previous discussions of limiting the number of participants and coaches but added that there were some sports that were aided through the help of volunteers.
Scarcipino said that the language in the negotiated bargaining agreement between the School District and teachers did not specify a maximum number of coaches.
Board member Sara Scott said that the Board needed to take into consideration the concerns from both sides, the staff and the community.
“We have to be aware of the union administration representatives and you don’t want to subtract from that effort,” she said. “Athletics are very important to all our students’ experiences. How do we make it financial sense for the district and for the students? How do we get there?”
“We have to understand as we are making these decisions that are going to result in academic cuts for the next year and I just need to say out loud our union came to the table and that is who going to get impacted by the economic cuts,” Campbell cautioned to the Board.
She stressed that the Board needed to decide possibly reinstating middle school sports now because as it stood, games had already been cancelled.
Devers pointed out that Athletic Director Randy Tevepaugh’s position was going to be reduced to a part-time role beginning on Aug. 1 and that Athletic Secretary Jon Hannan’s position had been eliminated because of budget cuts.
She wondered if the Board needed to make additions to the Athletic Department to ensure there was enough manpower to cover all sports in the School District.
As it stood, Campbell reminded the Board had already voted on a pay to participate fee of $300 for varsity sports at the high school at the March meeting and that a cap had been placed at $600.
Board member Kristina Mattmuller suggested that the Board reinstate middle school sports by combining seventh and eighth grade teams into one team for the 2026-27 school year.
“I am thinking of a pipeline, middle school sports and junior varsity sports are your pipeline for varsity, can we do middle school this year?” she asked the Board.
Board Vice President Tonia Epple stressed the importance of middle school sports for students.
“The importance for middle school kids is that they need somewhere to go after school, she noted. “If we did bring back junior sports, the varsity coaches could hold a spot for a freshman or sophomore just to get them the experience.”
The Board agreed that Tevepaugh’s position as Athletic Director in a part-time role would still suffice as he would be capable of overseeing the middle school sports. The Board did not decide if Hannan’s role as Athletic Secretary should be reinstated.
“Hire the eighth-grade coach but have them run both tryouts,” Scarcipino said. “I don’t know if there are other teams that combine. Put it under the eighth-grade umbrella. Hiring an eighth-grade coach and run it under that model.”
Scott added that if the Board wanted to reinstate middle school sports, it had to be every sport and not just restricted to specific ones. She said that she was not comfortable reinstating junior varsity sports at the high school level.
Devers made a motion recommending that the Board of Education reinstate middle school football, cheerleading, cross country, volleyball, basketball, bowling, wrestling and track teams (all combined 7th/8th grade) with a play to pay fee of $300 per student, per sport, effective the 2206-27 school year with no cap.
The motion carried unanimously.
Devers then made another motion that eliminated the cap on the play to pay participation fee for varsity sports, recommending that the Board enact a $300 play to pay fee for each varsity sport that a student participates in effective the 2026-27 school year.
That motion was also passed unanimously.
The Board’s next meeting will be on July 9 at Streetsboro High School at 5:45 p.m.
