The CCS school board allotted $8,110 at a budget work session Wednesday, March 14 to fund the initial year of a varsity boys and girls bowling team for the 2007-2008 school year.

"I believe this team will provide another opportunity for students during the winter season," wrote athletic director Michael Cring in a memo to superintendent Mary Jo McPhail. "This is a sport that would attract about 20 students that do not presently participate in any other sport."

Uniforms would cost $500, lane rental at the Clark Sports Center would cost $2,610, the coach would receive approximately $2,500 and transportation would cost $2,500.

In discussion at the budget work session, board members indicated they were in favor of budgeting funds for the sport.

"This is a lifelong sport and it seems appropriate to add it," said board member Betsy Del Giacco Jay. "It’s yet another way to involve students in an extracurricular athletic activity."

The board also discussed eliminating the school’s swim team, in part because the Clark Sports Center, where the swim practices and meets are held, did not want the school to have a team anymore.

Students who were on the CCS swim team would join the Clark Sports Center swim team.

"It’s an opportunity to eliminate a sport without really eliminating it," added CCS board president Anthony Scalici.

Cring said he has been told multiple times that the Sports Center would prefer not to have the school sponsor a swim team, as it interferes with the programming at the facility.

Both Cring and Del Giacco Jay said they were against eliminating the school’s team, as roughly 10 percent of the middle/high school student body participates in the popular program.

"Our numbers in the swim program have been excellent," Cring said. "If they don’t want us there, they should be making that decision and taking the heat for it."

It’s also one of the primary winter sports, a time of year when students already have fewer options, Cring said.

The school budget will be voted on May 15.