By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
After more than a year of discussing and debating changes to the Burlington Area School District naming rights policy, the question of just what the School Board wants remains.
The latest effort at revising the policy passed through the BASD School Board Policy Committee meeting Monday night, and will go before the full board at next Monday’s general board meeting at 7 p.m.
It’s been a long year and a quarter for the policy, which originally came under question in the spring of 2014 when a group petitioned the school board to allow the Burlington High School football stadium to be named for former football coach and athletic director Don Dalton.
While that movement eventually gained enough momentum to pass, questions about the naming rights policy were raised – and a committee was formed to research options and suggest changes.
Those changes ultimately resulted in a proposal that failed to gain a consensus in March, after being forwarded to the full board because the two Policy Committee members present the previous week couldn’t reach a consensus either.
With just two changes in School Board members since then – Roger Koldeway wasn’t re-elected in the spring and Larry Anderson has since retired – the same questions remained Monday night when the newest attempt at a policy came before the board.
School Board Member Rosanne Hahn proposed two amendments that ended up passing. The first is that all references to school district approval should be changed to School Board approval.
The second involved removing schools from the potential list of naming rights for sale. That would include current names – such as Dyer and Karcher – being off-limits.
Both passed, but there was some discussion on what was meant by schools.
“What does school building mean?” asked Kevin Bird, saying people do have “unexpected passions,” and allowing them the ability to pledge money to various specific areas should be allowed within the policy.
In the end, Policy Committee members Phil Ketterhagen and Bird, as well as the rest of the School Board – which was present, with member-elect Barry Schmaling in the audience – specified that schools themselves and the administrative offices would be off-limits.
That would allow for sponsorships of facilities like a concession stand, stadium, or even auxiliary buildings to be named.
School Board member Bill Campbell called the policy a “great opportunity” to fund additional buildings and space.
The policy will come before the board next week for discussion. The Policy Committee is currently down a member due to Larry Anderson’s retirement last month.
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