Seattle Schools and Athletics

 I came across a district "memo" on Athletics from the Office of Accountability to the Board. It's dated January 28, 2026.  This would be Ted Howard's office. I would love to share it with you but I must have somehow deleted the link.

It starts with a "Vision for Athletics" which basically says that sports are good for K-12 students for reasons like "student engagement, academic growth, physical health, social belonging, leadership developments, and positive mental health outcomes as well as resilience, confidence, collaboration, and connection to school." 

These outcomes directly support the district's commitment to academic success and whole child development. 

Then the memo gets to the meat of the matter - costs. Their idea is Pay for Play wherein students ' parents pay for their student to participate in sports. (I'm assuming they mean district sponsored sports.) 

Cost Context is the cost for the district.

Elementary: $150-$300

Middle: $450-$750

High: $1,000-$1,800

Family fees would represent only a portion of the actual program cost with district subsidy covering the majority. 

They do list the participation numbers for middle and high school so I'm confused about why they included elementary in the first place. Are there competitive sports teams in elementary?

Middle School: 6,460 student in 2025 with 175 paid coaches and 121 volunteer coaches (and bless all those volunteers)

High School: They give no amount for the number of high school athletes here but it's in a later chart. There are 484 hourly coaches, 234 volunteer coaches, 116 certified staff and 81 classified staff. I would not have thought that the certified/classified numbers would be that high. 

There are three scenarios:

1 - one-sport participation, $150-200 per sport which they say is comparable to regional districts.

2 - Two sport participation, $300-450 total (multi-sport discount)

3 - Three-sport participation, $400-550 cap

For families with multiple students:

Two students, one sport each, $300-500

Two students, multiple sports, $5000-700 with family cap

Naturally,

Fee waiver systems will remain available to qualifying families to ensure no student is denied participation due to financial hardship.

But here's the thing - while the district would, of course, pay for students from low-income families to participate, going to middle-class families and expecting them to pay $200-450 a year (plus uniforms, equipment, etc) may give those families pause. Because they may have that money budgeted for a vacation or a new refrigerator or something else and they now have a dilemma that affects the entire family.

There's then a somewhat-tortured chart on "student future goals," "skills," and "how athletics develops them." But okay.

They also have a chart showing the GPA for student athletes vs "non-participating peers." It's not a big gap to me with West Seattle HS athletes having a 3.49 GPA versus 3.14 GPA for non-participating students.  I'd like to really see how they compared these two groups. 

At the bottom of this chart, there is this notation:

At nearly every site, student athletes maintain GPAs 025-0.60 points higher than non-participating peers. This indication athletics functions as an academic engagement and accountability system, not a distraction from learning.

Oh come on, that's just a ridiculous "see Athletics is good for kids" statement made to save Athletics.

I see that student athletes have better attendance than other students but I venture to guess that it's a rule that you must attend school to participate in a sport. 

An average of 9% of high school students participate in sports. It's interesting that Lincoln HS has the highest rate at 14% while the lowest? Rainier Beach HS at 5%. 

Wait, what? OSPI reports that Lincoln HS has 1790 students. The district says "number of students athletes participating" 1,175. Fourteen percent of 1790 is 250. What am I missing (given my less-than-stellar math skills)?

History of Pay to Play in SPS (partial)

Seattle Public Schools has historically used a combination of district funding, school allocations, grants, and family participation fees to sustain athletic programs. 

Over time, SPS reduced reliance on  student fees in order to improve equity and access.

It is stated that other regional districts, as well as district in other states, use "participation fees." 

It's a tough call because, of course, athletics can be good for students in many ways. And yes, for some students it's what keeps them in school. BUT, what is school for? Academics. 

If this district does not have money, then one place they surely can cut way back on is Athletics. 

But then you get into the difficulty of what to cut? Do you keep the most "popular" sports like football and basketball? I would contend you pick the least expensive sports - basketball, soccer, and track. 

Yes, I know. It's sacrilege to ditch football but the district IS in dire straits. I would say cut sports before you close schools. There should be no sacred cows in SPS.