Students, coaches flip out about future of Sioux Falls School District’s gymnastics programs

The school board meeting room at the Sioux Falls School District’s Instructional Planning Center was packed Monday night, with a crowd of student gymnasts, alumni, coaches and parents who all shared one common concern: the district might consider cutting its gymnastics program.

It’s a timely concern, because district officials said in November that they're looking at cutting up to 4% of its budget for fiscal year 2024, and departments across the district are preparing budgets now with the potential to cut none, 1% or 4% across the board. That budget is set to be finalized in the coming months, beginning with a board work session in April.

More:Sioux Falls School District sets budget guidelines that could mean up to 4% in cuts

Some of the gymnastics advocates spoke during public comment time Monday night. Some of the speakers had also initially complained about coming changes to the gymnastics program during public comment at an October school board meeting, after an agenda item on the program was pulled from the board’s agenda.

At that time, no decisions had been finalized for the upcoming gymnastics season, and a timeline for any decision to be made hadn’t been set yet, then-district multimedia specialist Carly Uthe told the Argus Leader on Oct. 14.

In October, Lincoln and Washington High School gymnastics coach Les Coin said he and Roosevelt High School’s head gymnastics coach Kevin Knapp were given three options in May on how the gymnastics program would function in the future.

They initially verbally agreed on a $200,000 five-year contract with All American Gymnastics Academy (AAGA), with the condition that an addition would be built onto a school so they could go back to their home bases in a year, Coin said.

Coin said in October the contract they were presented with in advance of the meeting in mid-September needed some corrections, based on the verbal agreement they’d made earlier, since there was no mention of a gymnastics addition on the contract. They sent in their concerns and corrections to the district.

But as of Monday night, Coin said the district’s budget committee had recommended cutting gymnastics altogether, which he later estimated had a budget of $96,000.

A meeting Coin had asked for after the season with district administrators, school board members, and coaches, gymnasts and parents to discuss solutions was never set up, he said.

Enrollment has changed during the last couple of years in gymnastics for a number of reasons, Coin explained, including cutting back on middle school participation, limited participation during COVID-19, the loss of gymnastics camps and access to transportation.

'Gymnastics was our first love’

Eric VanBeek said his seventh grade daughter at Edison Middle School is a proud member of the Lincoln High School varsity gymnastics team, and that it’s “truly amazing” what this program has done for her. He asked the board to find another way to make a cut in the budget and to support the young girls on the team.

Sophie DeGroot, a seventh grader at Edison Middle School and a member of the LHS gymnastics team, said the team gave her the chance to “go out there and not be afraid to give it my all.” There must be a better way to budget than taking a sport away from strong young women, she told the board.

Ella Cornett, a senior at Roosevelt High School, said gymnastics has offered her and her teammates many affirmations and benefits through the years. She’s left wondering why her team is considered “less than.”

“When we young girls were warned of our first high school heartbreak, we had never imagined it being caused by the decisions of our school district,” Cornett said. “For so many, gymnastics was our first love, and we can’t comprehend the fact that a passion that has consumed our lives for so long is so easily (denied) by the leaders of our community.”

Ashlee Clayborne, a five-year competitor in Roosevelt High School gymnastics, two-year gymnastics judge and five-year coach at Washington High School, said gymnastics enrollment has dwindled in the past few years, because of a lack of transportation, the district’s cut to the middle school gymnastics program and combining school teams.

Audra Rew, a resident from Mitchell, echoed comments made by Coin that this issue wouldn’t just affect Sioux Falls but could impact the existence of gymnastics programs across the state. Rew was cut off several seconds into her testimony, because she isn’t a taxpayer living in the district.

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Maeve Boetel, a senior at O’Gorman High School who has participated in high school gymnastics for the last two years, asked her fellow gymnasts to stand behind her in the meeting as she told the board how she’s experienced more joy in this sport than she’s ever experienced before.

Gymnastics creates school pride, coach says

In the October meeting, Coin and Lana Bauer-White, Rebecca Mager, Eva Knudtson, Jason Knudtson and Skye Bork all spoke on gymnastics, too.

Rebecca Mager, another gymnastics coach in the district, said gymnastics gives students an opportunity to participate in their school building, and in the district, if they can’t afford playing in a club gym.

“What I ask of you now is to not take that opportunity away from another girl who wants to do a high school sport, who wants to do gymnastics, who wants to be a part of something in their building, in their district, something to create school pride,” Mager told the board then.

Lana Bauer White, a former gymnastics coach at O’Gorman High School, cautioned against the contract with AAGA and asked the board and administration to look it over, too.

Eva Knudtson, a senior at LHS and co-captain of the varsity gymnastics team, said gymnastics and Coin have taught her about life, and have allowed her to participate in the sport she loves, while maintaining a healthy balance between her social, academic and work life.

Knudtson said the practice times the team would need to attend at AAGA, 6 to 8 a.m., or 7 to 9 p.m., are not feasible for the teams in the district. They burden students who have other obligations such as choir, band, track, work or AP classes.

“I see great futures in the middle schoolers and underclassmen on my team, and I stand here today to advocate for them and speak against their potential chance to lose such an opportunity that I have,” she said.

Some of Knudtson’s best friendships and happiest times took place in the LHS gym space. High school gymnastics is about offering a welcoming, accessible environment for girls, she added, and losing that environment will have a detrimental effect on many young women and their passions.

Eva Knudtson’s dad, Jason Knudtson, told the Argus Leader he feels these decisions were made without parents’ or students’ knowledge, and that no one has explained to them the benefits of this change on the public school teams.

“The motivation for this deal for us is ultimately unclear,” he said in October.

Jason Knudtson said he’s also concerned that the school gymnasts’ needs will be secondary to those at the club, and that already, gymnasts from the school are struggling for warm-up space and equipment they need at the gym.

Part of the former contract also specified the schools’ gymnastics equipment be given to AAGA at no cost, Jason said in the October meeting. Parents are struggling to understand this action, because much of the equipment was purchased by booster club funds, he added.

Some student gymnasts have quit gymnastics, because they can’t afford the gas to drive all the way to AAGA, or can’t drive across town in the winter, according to public comments.

Since this has unfolded, Coin said the assistant coach he worked with for 10 years resigned.

Sioux Falls is the largest school district in the state.

None of the board members spoke in response to the outcry.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Sioux Falls School District to consider cutting gymnastics program