School board: Only our own students can participate in sports.

Students at other school districts will no longer be able to participate in Lake Roosevelt’s sports programs following a vote Monday night by the Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors.

The new policy takes effect in the next school year.

Currently, and for many years, students whose own nearby schools have not offered a sport have been able to arrange to participate in practices and play in Raider sports. But recent changes have drawn attention to the policy.

Athletic Director Casey Brewster told the board Monday that the district supports 25 sports and pays for it all, but other students who could choose to attend LR and play sports, don’t have to make that choice, a situation that costs the district money when students who play sports choose to attend elsewhere. For every one that leaves about $10,000 in state funding goes with them.

“If six of them play sports, that’s $60,000 minimum. … My thing is, students should be in the district to play sports,” Brewster said. “They have a choice whether to choice in and play.”

The district has long followed a policy allowing Nespelem students to play sports at LR since Nespelem went through only eighth grade. That has changed as Nespelem has added high school classes and now offers sports.

“It’s a tough conversation, because I know we want to be good neighbors,” said board Chair Shannon Nicholson. “We’re trying to, you know, build relations. But on the other hand, you know, we have to look out for our district and the financial and fiscal responsibility that we need to have.”

“I think if they want to play sports here, they need to go to school here,” said Director Buffy Nicholson. “They have an opportunity for this in Nespelem. It’s unfortunate they’re not as far in the game as they want to be, but they have the opportunity, so they need to make the choice.”

“We’ve done it for a long time. I know that it’s always been kind of gratuitous on our part, you know,” said Director Rich Black. “However, things have changed, and they now have their own sporting programs. So yeah, my tendency would be to say it’s probably time not to do it.”

Superintendent Rod Broadnax said since the state has required Nespelem students to “choice in” to one school or the other the situation is more complicated than it once was. “So I think that we have to look out for the best interest of the school district, keeping everything in alignment with now the state says everybody has a choice here,” he said.

On a motion from Alex Tufts and a second from Black, the board voted unanimously to stop allowing students from other districts to play in the district’s sports programs.