St. Johns County schools could find themselves in an unusual position of becoming a lifeline to high school student-athletes in Duval County this fall if an ominous proposal becomes a reality.
Recommendations sparked by a $90.9 million budget deficit prompted Duval County athletic director Jon Fox to propose eliminating 10 varsity high school sports.
As one of the fastest-growing school districts in the state, St. Johns County could very well find itself in position to absorb some of the spillover of the nearly 2,100 students who won't be able to compete in the sport that they did this past athletic season.
St. Johns County School District Superintendent Joseph Joyner said that the county would have to address some of the residuals from the Duval County situation, although that it would wait until the decisions were finalized before doing so. A vote on the proposed cuts, which include cross country, golf, tennis, wrestling, lacrosse and slow-pitch softball, will be June 13.
"Part of that is it's a little too early to tell what the impact is going to be ... are they going to be able to put some of those back through the help of some outside organizations, it's a little too early," he said. "We've been the fastest growing school district in the state the past four years (percentage-wise). Rapid growth and an influx of students is something we're used to. That's not going to change."
St. Johns County schools have increased their enrollment by an average of 922 students annually between 2007-2010, and that number could rise again if the scenario plays out in Duval County as it was presented this week. On Wednesday, Fox recommended to the school board that cutting 10 varsity sports would save $445,298.
That could send students scrambling for private schools or into surrounding counties to continue their careers. In addition to the high school sports, junior varsity soccer and two undetermined middle school sports will also be purged. According to the Florida Times-Union, the high school cuts alone would eliminate sports that 2,054 athletes competed in during the 2010-11 year.
Florida High School Athletic Association executive director Roger Dearing said that if the situation in Duval County plays out as is being projected, students couldn't just pick up and leave a program because of a sport not being offered there anymore.
"We would not ease the transfer rules," said Dearing, referring to Article 9 in the FHSAA bylaws about which covers student eligibility.
"They can't put on their application that they want to go to school in St. Johns County to play lacrosse. If that happened, that would be something that would make them ineligible. I probably will get some inquires (about students transferring). I'm hoping ... I'm hoping the board finds another way of staving it off. You have to make priorities somewhere. Sports are a very vital part of education for high school students, but it's not what the schools are there for. You've got to put education first."
School districts from around the state have differing limits on accepting out-of-district transfers, although St. Johns states on its website that it "will not accept any requests for students residing outside of St. Johns County unless they are children of St. Johns County School Board employees."
"Just with the announcement (on Wednesday), to really predict what's going to happen, whether we'll have an impact in scheduling or in transfers, I don't really think we can even predict," Joyner said.