Metuchen High School students who had hoped to play ice hockey in the coming school year will not achieve their goal.
The Aug. 11 Metuchen Board of Education meeting became contentious as board members and residents discussed the possibility of the district joining an ice hockey cooperative in the Edison School District that now consists of Edison High School and J.P. Stevens High School.
“If there’s an opportunity for these kids to play a sport and it won’t cost the taxpayers or the Board of Education anything, I just don’t understand why it wouldn’t be a priority,” said Paul DiStefano, president of the Edison Township Ice Hockey Parents Association.
Early in the meeting, board member Michael Stern said he planned to make a motion to vote on moving forward with an application for a nonbinding waiver from the state that would allow the district to join the co-op for the winter season if board members later decided to do so. After a long — and at times, heated discussion — Stern’s motion was met with silence.
Explaining that the deadline for the waiver is in September, Stern pointed out that the proposal — which was first discussed by the board in March — has the support of Edison Superintendent of Schools Richard O’Malley.
Four Metuchen High School (MHS) students who are interested in playing ice hockey would be eligible for the coming season if the district joined the co-op. Also, Stern said, a petition in support of the move garnered about 200 signatures.
The proposal for Metuchen to join the cooperative would have parents paying all costs associated with their children playing hockey, which DiStefano estimated at about $2,000 per student.
Stern acknowledged issues other board members have raised about the co-op, including financial considerations, insurance and transportation, among others. The most significant issue for board members, he said, is what they’re calling “pay to play,” and whether it should be allowed in the district.
“In all those particular topics that I just addressed, there are viable solutions that we can use to make this happen for these kids,” he said.
Other board members, however, didn’t see the issue as cut and dry. Board President Jonathan Lifton said it’s a complicated matter, and that the board needs more time to deliberate on it.
“We’ve had six months so far to do some measure of deliberation, and I haven’t really seen any deliberation at all about this,” Stern said. “I appreciate your calls for deliberation but the catch is, you have to actually deliberate.”
Stern said the program would be a “turnkey” operation, and shouldn’t require so much time to consider.
“I don’t think it’s fair to say that the board is … not discussing it,” Lifton said.
Resident Tina DiSano, whose son is seeking to play hockey at MHS, asked why the application hasn’t been submitted, especially since it is nonbinding.
Lifton pointed out that the proposal was brought up after the budget process, which involves deciding which sports to offer in the coming year. He also said while the waiver is nonbinding, he feels that applying for it would make the board obligated to move forward with it.
Another resident, former councilman Justin Manley, asked what the Athletic Committee had done since the proposal was first introduced.
Athletic Committee Chair Rose de Vries also cited it being brought up after the budget process, and said the committee had discussed the proposal. In addition, de Vries said that after the proposal, the committee enacted a procedure to be followed before any new sport could be considered in the district, so school officials could vet each proposal fairly.
Lastly, de Vries said, students and parents have requested other sports. Resident Dave Gaier, who spoke in support of the coop, questioned her claim.
“Are there any other … parents here who are clamoring for other sports, because the only thing I’m hearing is a … very positive request by some parents, based on … the desires of their children to play hockey and they’re willing to pay for it. And I’m not seeing the willingness on your part to even … discuss it.”
Lifton said a few months back, students submitted a petition with 70 signatures in support of girls lacrosse, pointing out that the meeting was not advertised as a forum for those desiring new sports offerings in the district.
As some members raised questions about “pay to play,” the term itself came into question.
“To be honest, before I started talking to Metuchen, I had never heard the term ‘pay to play,’” DiStefano said. “It was just a parent funded program.”
DiStefano went on to say that every high school hockey program he knows of has parents paying for students to play.
“Hockey is an expensive sport,” he said. “No one expects their Board of Education to pick up the tab for it.”
Gaier also took issue with calling it “pay to play,” a phrase more often used in reference to illegal activities.
“We’re not talking about it in the pejorative sense, and I think it’s being discussed in the pejorative sense,” he said. “It seems to me a perfectly positive and innocent thing, whereby parents are willing to pay …”
Lifton told Gaier that paying for athletics is against district policy. Gaier asked if such a policy is in writing, and Lifton said it is, and it is in place as a matter of equity for students.
When asked for clarification, Board Attorney Jonathan Busch said nothing prohibits the board from allowing parents to pay for athletics in the district.
“We have an agreement with our Board of Education that no student would be turned away, no matter their financial ability,” DiStefano said in response to board members questions about students whose families could not afford the sport.
He said the parents association meets the needs of every child, through fundraising and benevolent donations.
“We don’t want to be hasty,” said board member Aileen McGuire, citing the 16 or 17 points involved in the new procedure for introducing sports and saying only five had been addressed.
“I must be living in an alternate universe, because my experience being on this Athletic Committee is starkly different from what was just described,” Stern said, asserting that de Vries had stated before any discussion that she didn’t want ice hockey.