Middle School Athletics Model

The middle school athletics program in Lake Washington School District (LWSD) has been facing challenges for many years. We are proud of the fact that our middle school participation numbers are very high, however, the large number of participants has created additional challenges.  

• Title IX – under-represented gender 
• Equity of experience – participation regardless of level 
• Facility capacity – overcrowded venues 
• Transportation – bus availability and budget impact 
• Coaches – not enough coaches for proper instruction and supervision 
• Different size schools – small schools vs. large schools 

History 

When LWSD moved to the middle school model, sixth grade students were allowed to fully participate like the seventh and eighth grade students. At this time, middle schools stopped offering football, baseball and fastpitch, which led to middle school boys being the underrepresented gender for Title IX. Beginning in 2016, the first middle school program review committee began meeting to discuss how to solve the challenges listed above. While the committee recommended many changes, only a few were implemented and therefore only the challenge of Title IX was solved. The other challenges remain. 

Middle school program review 2022-24 

In September of 2022, the middle school program review committee was revived to explore solutions to the remaining challenges listed above, as those challenges had become even greater. The committee includes building administrators, building athletic directors and district office athletic personnel. We are seeking feedback from key stakeholders on possible options to help us solve these challenges.   

The goal of the committee is to address the challenges of our current unstainable model: 

• Equity of experience – Due to large numbers, some schools had to have students come on alternating days. 
• Facility capacity – More students participating than facilities allowed (Ex. 100+ tennis players on 3 or 4 tennis courts). 
• Transportation – Securing buses during times needed, and continued rising costs (charters) adversely affecting ASB budgets. 
• Coaches – Coaches are hired on an allocation based on a student to coach ratio. This creates challenges in getting enough coaches to match participants. 
• Different size schools – Large schools transport students to small schools to compete against the same school (Example: A larger school’s tennis team may have significantly more participants than another, smaller school, resulting in the larger school’s students traveling to a smaller school to play against other students from their own school). 

Committee work 

The committee continues to meet to identify interests, evaluate data, explore multiple options and compare offerings to other school districts in the area. Many ideas are being researched, reviewed and debated. It is important to note that any proposed changes would still have LWSD offering the most comprehensive middle school programming as compared to our neighboring districts. 

We need your feedback!  

The district will be sending out a middle school athletics survey to all grade 4, 5, 6 and 7 families on January 26, 2024. Feedback will be due by February 9, 2024. The feedback received from this survey will be reviewed by the committee to help us make decisions about our middle school athletics model for 2024-25 and beyond.