Madison Hoop Dreams' Bill Barker Takes His Case To Board Of Education (With Video)

After involved in a dispute over the use of town gyms, Madison Hoop Dreams' Bill Barker took his case to the Madison Board of Education, since the BOE controls the policy that guides the assignment of school gyms.

One of the area's most popular summer basketball camps Madison Hoop Dreams wants to use the town's largest gym for a basketball camp the week of June 27th. As with past years, the Beach & Recreation Department wants to use this gym as well this week for a town basketball program. Citing a policy set by the town's Board of Education, the Beach & Recreation Commission said he camp run by the town will take precedence. The Beach & Recreation Department is charged with assigning the gyms for summer programs.

The town has three gyms. The Brown School gym holds about 40 campers, the Daniel Hand High School gym holds about 60 campers, and the Polson School gym holds about 120 campers.

During a recent Board of Education meeting, Barker encouraged board members to consider the plight of the basketball program. He delivered a prepared statement during the public portion of the meeting, and said that there are only 35 students signe up for the town program, and 56 students enrolled for Madison Hoop Dreams.

Barker's point is that the biggest program should get the biggest gym. Tom Banisch, the chairman of the town's Beach and Recreation Commission said the commission decided this year that, if the town program is to be grown, that it would have to use the Polson gym.

At the Board of Education meeting, no action was taken during the meeting, but BOE Chairman Becky Coffey said following the meeting that the BOE has no plans to get involved in the dispute at this point.

"The Board of Education has a policy governing the allocation of school facility use to different user group categories.  The school district and the Beach and Recreation Department in assigning facilities to those requesting use of school facilities for programming this summer have adhered to the Board of Education policy," Coffey said in an email. "No Board of Education member suggested at this week’s Board meeting that the Board waive its existing policy. This policy has served the Board well and provides clearly direction to potential user groups of the Board’s priorities. In an informal poll, our school district administration also found that our policy’s list of potential user groups and their relative priorities in assignments of school facilities is consistent with policies of several other shoreline school districts."