WOODSFIELD — Let’s be honest. The Switzlerland of Ohio Local Schools Board of Education has been heavily scrutinized over the years because of some of the decisions it’s made — or tried to make.

However, in the effort of being fair, the BOE deserves major kudos at this point.

Last week, the BOE formally approved the removal of pay to participate fees for the 2017-18 school year. Those fees, which measured $200 per high school sport and $100 per junior high sport, had been in place since 2014.

Quite simply, the board appears to have come to grips with the fact that the pay to participate was one of the reasons that the school district has more than 220 students open enrolled out of the district.

“There are a couple of reasons why the BOE made this decision,” Switzerland of Ohio Schools Treasurer Lance Erlwein said. “We’d like to draw some of those (open-enrolled) students back to our district and we want to ease the burden on the families.”

The state of Ohio provides funding to public school districts at $7,000 per student, so the district did some simple math.

“With that funding, if we bring back, say maybe 20 kids, we’ve more than made up for the loss of those (pay to participate) funds,” Erlwein said.

According to Erlwein, the money, which had to be paid before the first game, went into the respective schools’ athletic fund. It helped pay for transportation to and from games.

The Switzerland of Ohio School District is still in fiscal caution, but Erlwein indicated the recent oil and gas boom has “allowed the (the financial situation) to improve.”

We talked to all three athletic directors in the district and saying all were elated would be an understatement.

“Life certainly got better for us (with the board’s decision),” Beallsville Athletic Director Delmas Moore said. “The fees were a real problem here and I think it limited participation in sports.”

Beallsville High School was once on the brink of extinction as the Switzerland BOE had voted in 2015 to close the school. That decision was fought and eventually overturned. Since then, the board has passed a policy that it wouldn’t close any schools.

The Blue Devils had 31 high school and 26 junior high students participate in sports during the fall and currently have 37 total involved this winter. Beallsville didn’t offer golf or wrestling this school year and that’s after not sponsoring a baseball team last spring.

“Things are on the upswing and we’re much more optimistic,” Moore said. “The school district is helping us to improve our facilities, the school is stable and we have a strong principal who is committed to our school. I really think the drama is behind us and removing the pay to participate fees has us deliriously happy.”

According to Moore, Beallsville has over 100 students (K-12) currently enrolled in the Barnesville School District.

Monroe Central athletic director Ryan Rosnick called the board’s decision, “a great thing for the kids.”

“When you think about $200 per sport and you have multiple children playing multiple sports, it definitely adds up quickly,” Rosnick said. “I think (the decision) is going to be a big help in getting the numbers back up to where they used to be.”

Rosnick — the former Seminole baseball coach — believes that the spring sports could benefit the most from the decision.

“In smaller schools, the same kids basically play all the sports, so when you get to the spring and it’s the third season, some kids are up to $600, so it becomes a big factor,” Rosnick said. “I’ve talked to some of our parents and they’re very excited. The main thing in high school is to play, interact with other kids and be involved. Participating in sports teaches much more than just the games. Plus, your teammates — and coaches — become like another family.”

At River, Mark Romick reported the Pilots had 67 athletes involved in fall sports and 43 involved in the winter and estimates that some 70 will sign up for baseball, softball and track.

“I think this decision will definitely help numbers,” Romick said. “We probably always had one or two kids who was borderline (on whether to play or not) and some parents have told their kids to pick one or two sports because they’re not going to play all three.”

Like the school district officials, Romick thinks the decision could bring some of the current open enrollment students back to the district. River loses a bulk of its open enrollment students to Shadyside and many of those are from Powhatan.

“There are a lot of good things going on here and with this decision, I hope we can get some kids back,” Romick said.

Romick also serves as the head coach of the boys basketball and baseball teams. Along with what the decision means for the families, he admitted that it “eases the burden” on him, and other coaches, too.

“You always hate saying to a parent, ‘we need to get that money turned in,'” Romick said. “We’ve had parents make payments and it’s just a bad situation for everybody.”

All three athletic directors dealt with similar issues because obviously not every athlete in the school could afford to pay the fees. So, he or she would either have to choose which sports to participate in, which has led to lower numbers and fewer opportunities.

But, there’s more to it than just that. Because of the fees and student-athletes having to sometimes choose, they would miss out on an opportunity to compete, be around their friends and just be part of a team.

“We want all of our kids, regardless of their means, to be able to participate,” Switzerland of Ohio Schools Superintendent Jeff Greenlee said. “Research has shown that students who are involved in two or more extra-cirricular activities are more successful. We also want to give our students as many opportunities to have a good high school experience and eliminating these fees is a good way to help that.”

All three athletic directors applauded their respective communities and booster groups for being willing to help a kid pay his or her fees when approached.

“We would take money from our boosters and we even had a few churches in the area help,” Moore said. “Our biggest help, however, was the American Legion. They have an endowment fund to the school and we’d use money of out that to pay the fees. We simply didn’t want our kids to not be able to play.”

On top of allowing for student involvment, Rosnick pointed out the board’s decision will also lift some of the burden off of the coaches, who are responsible for collecting the fees and turning them in before the season.

“It’s going to be help everyone,” Rosnick said.

It sure will and that’s why the board of education deserves major kudos.

SETH SCOOPS

∫ ST. CLAIRSVILLE grad Christian Witchey was named the Special Teams MVP at St. Vincent College in Latrobe. Despite being sidelined in week 7 with a concussion, Witchey finished the season with a 36.43 yard average and had a long of 58 yards. He dropped five punts inside the 20.

∫ THE OHSAA recently determined the regional track and field venues. While area Division II teams will once again return to Athens to compete, Division III competitors are heading to Massillon Perry. The meet had been held at Navaree Fairless.

Staskey can be reached via email at sstaskey@timesleaderonline.com or at twitter.com/TLSportsSeth