Despite a power outage in downtown New Hope and tree damage across Solebury Township, the atmosphere was charged at the New Hope-Solebury High School auditorium Monday night, and the school board crumbled like a ripe wedge of goat cheese.
The story began back on Sept. 16, as first reported in the Free Press. A group of lame-duck board members had voted to ban sports under the lights next spring in frustration with other board member’s intransigence, and in order to focus the community’s attention, they say. Among the citizens who felt “focused” was community activist Judy Finn, who wreaked PR havoc on the dazed board through a Facebook site, “save the Lions” ribbons and magnets, and ultimately inspiring a “save the lights” video.
Said Finn of the school board’s 5-2 vote reversing their earlier decision to pull the plug on night games, “I think it was inevitable. The community showed them that this is what we wanted, and that this board and any subsequent boards have this neighborhood to deal with.
“I’m happy with the decision to turn on the lights, I’m thrilled with our students, I’m impressed by the turnout tonight, and I hope at least half these people maintain an active role,” she added.
Asked for his reaction to the vote, Board Member Jonathan Adar said, “I’m very happy about it.”
While the lights and sound ban has been rescinded,one huge question remains. To What Extent will they be turned back on which is a question future boards will have to wrestle with.I offer my take on what I think is a fair and reasonable compromise dealing with several aspects of the situation(1) Since football games end some 45 minutes later than the other sports- soccer,field hockey and lacrosse- start the football games an 45 minutes earlier. I was at the Bristol New Hope football game a few weeks ago which started at 6PM and ended at 8:45 which is the time other sports end. If the game started at 7:PM, it would have ended at 9:45 with the lights being turned off after 10PM when everyone would have left the stadium.I did not hear anyone complain that the game started too early or that the school spirit was negated by an earlier start. The fact is that with an earlier start all teams will have the same amount of time under the lights.(2)I believe that the biggest stumbling block is that football, UNLIKE all the other sports, has the ‘Play by Play’. Is it really necessary to hear for 2.5 hours,” Johhny Doe into the line for a 3 yard gain?” Or, “30 yard pass completed to Sam Doe. First down and ten for New Hope.” This is the deal breaker which I believe set off the controversy. Back on Oct. 22 2012, at a huge school Board meeting which also involved the closing by the board of the dangerous, unlevel, small football practice field, there were two reasons given by a football athlete for having the play by play. (a) Since football players wear helmets, people will not know who made the play. Rebuttal: The players have numbers on their backs along with their name on the football program.(b)We need the play by play because parents don’t understand the game.Rebuttal.If this were the case, I would hope that the football fathers,who understand the game, would teach their spouses the rudimentary elements of the game. Finally, not having a child in the district and not living near the field, my concern is to be able to attend games whenever they are played.