RAPID CITY - A majority of middle school athletes like playing on teams with kids of various abilities, even if adults can't agree on what is the best way to run a middle school activities program, according to Tyler Rachetto, who led a committee commissioned in November to study the Rapid City middle school activities program.

After months of discussion, members of a committee charged with reviewing the Rapid City School District's middle school activities program still disagree on the value of building middle school athletic teams around individual players' athletic skills.

Rachetto made a final report on the committee's findings to the school board Thursday.

The report recommended making changes for the 2008-2009 school year, but if enough money and coaches can be found to implement the committee's findings, those changes could be made this fall, according to superintendent Peter Wharton.

The committee's task was to determine what would be in the best interest of the kids who participate in middle school activities, Rachetto said.

But the committee failed to agree on the practice known as leveling, which assigns kids to a team based upon their athletic ability. The current middle school activity philosophy does not support leveling.

At least one parent says the committee was weighted from the beginning against making changes that would have favored leveling.

"At least half of the committee was made up of school employees, a large number in charge of the program," Bryan Schnell said. "What would we expect?"

Proponents of leveling claim it nurtures the talented athletes by giving them better competition. At the same time, coaches have more time to focus on skill building when less-experienced athletes play together.

"The key issue was competition," Rachetto said "This study group, after exhaustive discussion of the issues, was unable to reach common ground."

At no time did any committee member want to implement a cut policy prohibiting kids from participating in a middle school program, Rachetto said.

Everyone on the committee agreed that kids should be involved in activities because the benefits are extremely important, Rachetto said.

"The issue was: Should we group students by ability or should we put students of different skills on the same team?" Rachetto said.

A survey conducted by John Usera of the Institute for Educational Research and Evaluation, revealed that parents are almost equally split on the completion structure as are middle school athletic coaches.

High school coaches overwhelmingly favored making middle school programs more competitive by leveling the teams, Rachetto said.

But, when kids were asked how they felt about the present system, 48 percent said leave it alone, and 28 percent favored changing the format.

"This is a very important part of the survey. I think you should give a lot of weight to," Rachetto said. "Listen to the kids. Clearly the middle school students are in favor of not changing it, leaving it alone."

But, Schnell says the survey was not as objective as it could have been.

Students should have been asked: "Do you want to go out and win and win all your games and be in the top, or do you just want to have fun?" he said.

Instead, students were asked about the makeup of a team and given four options: best athletes on one team, athletes of different skill levels on the same team, athletes of similar skills on the same team or students that are friends and get along on one team.

Here's how they voted:

- 48 percent opted for putting kids of different skill levels on the same team.

- 28 percent wanted to see kids of similar skills on the same team.

- 18 percent wanted to play on the same team as their friends.

- 5 percent wanted the best athletes in the school on a team.

"Who would not want to say, 'I just want to have fun'?" Schnell said.

Schnell says that kids who took time to include a written response with the survey said they wanted to learn more fundamentals, which indicates the kids want to learn more.

"The way to do that is by having an A-B-C program," Schnell said. An A-B-C program would put kids of similar skills together with a coach who would have the time to focus on the fundamentals, he said.

Schnell said district officials are fixated on having large numbers of students participate in activities.

Under the present middle school activities structure, being involved means sitting on a bench and playing for two minutes, Schnell said.

Rachetto sent the board a list of recommended changes in the middle school program that includes giving kids more playing time and reducing team sizes.

Giving kids more playing time will improve middle school programs, Rachetto said.

Rachetto recommended reducing team sizes from a maximum of 18 players to a maximum of 15 players for basketball and volleyball. All football players should have at least one quarter of playing time.

Kids like to be on the court, and parents like to see their kids on the floor, Rachetto said.

Reducing team sizes comes with a price tag, Rachetto said. Middle school activities director Doug Foley estimates it could cost as much as $15,000 to hire additional coaches.

The committee also recommended improving communication between high school coaches and middle school coaches.

"We feel we could do a better job with our middle school activity program of communicating from the middle school level to the high school level," Rachetto said.

If high school coaches shared basic techniques with middle school coaches, the programs could become more competitive, Rachetto told the school board. Principals should be encouraged to allocate time for the coaches to meet, he said.

The committee also recommended scheduling middle school and high school events at the same place.

For example, wrestling events could be held on the same day.

"Coaches would have an opportunity to visit with one another," Rachetto said. "The kids could see the high school kids participating. It will get them excited about being out for extracurricular programs."

Contact Andrea Cook at 394-8423 or andrea.cook@rapidcityjournal.com