At Monday’s meeting of the Warren County School District personnel, athletics, and co-curricular activities committee, the members discussed numbers.

On the agenda were the third- and 10th-day numbers for fall sports.

Only one program — junior high football at Sheffield — fell “short of the minimum required participation level.”

Paul Mangione, committee chairman, asked about that situation.

“Will there be any recommended action from administration on the sports listed in yellow?” he asked.

Administrators reported that their expectation is that the program will recover slightly next year and get back above that line.

The number of the Sheffield varsity football team shows 34, well above the minimum participation limit. Still, a question about that program arose at the meeting.

“There are a couple people who are very concerned about the numbers of Sheffield,” board member Mary Passinger said. “They’re concerned about kids getting hurt.”

She said multiple players had to be taken away in ambulances at a recent game.

“It is concerning,” she said. “The suggestion from at least one person was consider not doing varsity for a couple years, try to build up the junior high program for a couple years.”

The number of participants in the district’s three marching bands has been a concern for the board for years.

Districtwide, there are only 67 students in marching bands — including the instrumentalists and the band front. Of those, 31 are at Warren, 20 at Youngsville and 16 at Eisenhower.

Board member Jeff Labesky asked that the numbers be broken out into instruments and color guard for the next committee meeting.

The numbers include students as young as sixth grade at Eisenhower. Warren and Youngsville show students in grades seven through 12.

Of the members listed in the bands, 27 are in grades nine through 12 at Warren, 12 at Youngsville and seven at Eisenhower.

The school board has been discussing the dwindling of the bands for years.

“We’ve gone over and over about marching band and the music programs,” Passinger said.

She suggested that part of the reason behind declining band numbers could be a lack of time built into music teachers’ schedules for private lessons.

“I have talked to several of the music teachers,” she said. “There is concern because there is less and less time for lessons. Some of the music teachers also have other duties instead of having time to do lessons.”

Working with teachers one-on-one or in small groups encourages students, she said.

“If we really want to try and save music programs,” Passinger said, “we need to start work on that.”

Gary Weber, director of administrative support services, said the administration is aware of the importance of private lessons and believes the time allotted has not changed in “a number of years.”

SCOREBOARD

The Eisenhower Soccer Boosters have been working to have an electronic scoreboard installed at the field.

There is a problem — electricity.

“Electricity on that site has been an issue,” Superintendent Amy Stewart said. “Putting electricity to that soccer field just isn’t where we need to be putting our time and effort.”

So, the boosters have found an alternative energy — solar.

“They are putting in a scoreboard that has solar capacity to it,” Stewart said.