Archive for June, 2009

Read the entire article on the Wicked Local Walpole website:

Athletic fees next year at Walpole High School will be bumped up by $45 per student, per sport.

The School Committee last week approved the increase objections of one member who believes the toll is arbitrary and that parents are overburdened already with other fees.

With the increase, parents will pay $200 for their child to play a sport at the high school next year. If a student plays three or more sports, an individual cap has been put in place so they won’t pay more than $500 total in sport fees. A family cap has also been set at $1,000.

Those numbers are up from $155 per sport this year with a family cap of $775.

"(The increase) is ridiculously large, but it’s necessary to fund a program," said Jim Erker, who serves as the interim athletic director until July 1.

The fee boost, along with an increase in gate fees at football and basketball games and changes in how athletes are bused to games and scrimmages, should balance out a projected $60,000 deficit in the fiscal 2010 athletic budget, said Superintendent Lincoln Lynch.

"There’s a problem in the athletic …

Read the entire article on the Wicked Local Walpole website:

   As they say, the third time’s always the charm.
   When John Lee announced his retirement as Walpole Athletic Director, longtime baseball Coach Bill Tompkins applied for the position, but lost out to good friend and track coach Jim Erker.
   Three years ago when Erker announced his own retirement, Tompkins again applied for the position, but found himself on the outside looking in once more when the selection committee went with football Coach Danny Villa.
   In December Villa abruptly resigned as a result of a rape investigation, and Superintendent Lincoln Lynch asked Jim Erker to return and navigate the program through troubled seas until the end of this school year.
   Erker did an admirable job of helping Walpole High and his hometown recover from the allegations, and the students responded well. Despite the great job he did Erker reiterated it was only temporary and he was back in retirement, which he came out of of an emergency basis, at the end of June.
   After the position was advertised over 20 applications came in, including another from Tompkins.
   Although a …