This story comes from Wisconsin:
An anonymous donor's gift has come to fruition at Arrowhead.Some additional details and a photo gallery at the link. Stories like this crop up in state and local news, and tend to generate a mix of responses. It's nice to see people donating their personal funds to their alma mater or hometown school, but certain inequities are created when more fortunate schools have training facilities that poorer or less lucky schools or districts cannot match.
In August 2014, the school board approved the renovation of the North Campus girls and boys basketball locker rooms after an initial $275,000 donation from a donor. The end result required more money from the donor, who ended up giving $361,224 to a project that cost a total of $662,602, according to Superintendent Craig Jefson.
The anonymous donor's money went toward the space-ready area, which included the girls and boys team room, a media room, football storage and 25 percent of the heating and ventilation upgrade.
Some of these views are discussed in a Reddit thread.
It would be so nice if an equal amount were spent on classroom upgrades, or class size reduction, or books, or any of the materials that teachers spend a fortune on to enhance their instruction, or on-campus health centers, or oh, so many other things besides sports.
ReplyDeleteMy alma mater!! It is more of an affluent Milwaukee suburb than a rural area. They are doing well on the classroom and teaching materials side of the equation as well.
ReplyDelete"Rural" deleted from the text (tx for the correction). I only know the school from the girls' and boys' golf teams, which competed at the WIAA against my favorites from Eau Claire North.
DeleteIt was interesting to read up on the details. These locker rooms hadn't been renovated since they were built in the 1970's. The school's money mostly went for the much needed and overdue plumbing and HVAC improvements. (I can believe this based on the state of those locker rooms when I used them.) The donor's money went towards the ridiculously elaborate graphic design and lighting.
DeleteThough I'm not an expert on the sports facilities - I was on the math team.