Sports, extracurriculars on hold at Lakeview Junior High after budget cuts

With pandemic restrictions loosening up this school year, eighth grade soccer player Ryan Ording was excited to return to class until he realized that he may not get to enjoy his final season of soccer at Lakeview Junior High School.

Center Cass School District 66 eighth graders haven’t had it easy with their middle school experience being marred by a global pandemic at the start and dramatic budget cuts to close it. The three-year journey has been a long one, and they’ve persevered, but it’s left them wondering what “normal” is anymore as the young students hold onto hope that the district’s November referendum will pass.

“I just feel kind of helpless because one person can’t convince everyone to vote yes,” Ording said. “It feels right playing soccer at school, but now whenever me and my teammates hear news about the school, all we do is wonder about if they will be able to bring activities back in time for us to start our season.”

Ording has been playing soccer since he was 5 years old, but said his favorite seasons have been at Lakeview. He played center last season when the team won the conference playoffs. Now Ording wonders if the school will be able to defend that title or be left with no after-school soccer program in his graduating year.

The loss of extracurriculars for students comes following the failure of the June referendum, which proposed a greater limiting tax rate increase for the district than the November referendum. District officials said if the June referendum failed, budget cuts would be necessary to keep the schools operating.

One cut was eliminating all after-school activities and extracurriculars from sports to music and art. No activities sponsored by the district remain for students and parents have been left trying to pick up the slack.

“These kids have been through a pandemic, and on top of that people forget that a tornado ran through our town, so for them to be back to school and have no field trips, no activities and no sports, it’s devastating,” said Robin Oberle, who has three daughters in the district. “This referendum has divided the community, but we can control the narrative and change that.”

Oberle’s way of controlling the narrative was to begin a running club for students, organized entirely by volunteer parents and grandparents and run out of her home. A former runner, Oberle and other parents led about 30 fifth through eighth grade runners through a six-week season that met Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and ended with a 5K.

Oberle said she felt a great sense of community after the tornado devastated the town as she watched neighbors help neighbors and encouraged her children to do the same. That sense of community that flourished just a year ago feels lost now, she said, and she wanted to show students that the whole community supports them, regardless of how people have voted.

“I hope the biggest lesson they learned is that no matter what life throws at you, you can jump over that barricade and keep going,” Oberle said. “I hope they really felt – over the noise of division over the referendum – the love and support of their community again.”