MVBT cancels soccer season in illegal vote

The Mountain View-Birch Tree School Board cancelled Liberty’s soccer 2023-2024 season in a 6-1 vote on Feb 16. According to the draft minutes of the meeting, the school board completed their published agenda in open session and withdrew into closed session at 8:08 p.m. The board returned to open session at 9:34 p.m., and then the board entertained, voted, and passed a motion that was not on the published agenda for this meeting. 

It is a violation of Missouri’s Sunshine Law for a public body to discuss or vote on items that are not on the meeting’s agenda. “Public governmental bodies shall give notice of [a meeting’s] tentative agenda, in a manner reasonably calculated to advise the public of the matters to be considered,” reads RsMo. 610.020.

Public bodies may amend their agendas, but the minutes of this meeting record a unanimous vote to adopt the agenda as presented without amendment. 

In a phone interview Friday, Superintendent Dr. Don Christensen agreed, “Right,” to this reporter’s suggestion that the vote was a violation of the Sunshine Law. 

He said the district’s plan is to take this information to the school board with the intention to place the soccer program on the agenda of the next regular meeting. 

According to Missouri Press Association’s attorney Jean Maneke, this plan is an adequate “redo” for the school district that will bring them back into compliance with transparency laws. 

“During the administrator’s reports, we became aware that we don’t have enough kids to register for soccer,” Dr. Christensen explained. “We didn’t have enough to apply on MSHSAA’s website.”

He explained that the vote took place because the school board did not want the decision to cut the season to be administrative, but rather the school board’s.

Athletic Director Eli Ernst told Howell County News his preseason information gathering generated a list of only seven girls interested in soccer when eleven are required per MSHSHAA rules. 

“We have not come to this place without much effort to continue our program.  We are not ‘cutting’ this program or sport, we are just not able to field a team for this one season,” Ernst said in an email. “On Feb. 6, I requested an attendance check from the soccer coaches.  I was given a list of seven student athletes who were actually attending the preseason contact sessions for soccer. There were other names of girls listed on the probable roster, but only seven were attending.”

“Our school board meeting took place on Feb. 16.  The official fall sports season started on Feb. 27…a decision had to be made in the best interest of our students, coaches and the program as a whole.  Our school board made the difficult decision to release our coaches from their school coaching contracts and MSHSAA obligations,” Ernst continued. 

Soccer parents, however, say the school board voted too soon to cancel the season. 

“We kinda thought this season, we had the numbers,” said Nathan Wagner, who has had two daughters play for Liberty soccer. “We were low last year, for sure, but they didn’t even wait to see what we’ve got this season. It is a little disappointing…I think they jumped the gun a little bit, but I’m not surprised. It’s been a constant battle to keep the program.”

Wagner said he had no indication that soccer would be discussed in a school board meeting. 

“If it was football or basketball, there’d be riots in the streets right now,” Wagner commented. “I’m not knocking the board members. I’m sure they had their reasons. I just feel like it was a little early to make that call.”

For another soccer family, the loss of the program means the loss of the only contact sport their child can play. Lucy Salinas says her player, Tatiana Chavez, has Halt Arm Syndrome, which prevents her from playing volleyball and basketball.

“Some of the other girls will be able to move on to another sport. Tatiana doesn’t have that luxury,” she said. 

Salinas agrees with Wagner that the school board, “didn’t give us the opportunity to show up with the numbers,” for the soccer program. 

She does not feel that the school district promotes the soccer program. 

“It is absolutely hard to bring up numbers when we’re not getting the same recognition as other sports,” Salinas told Howell County News. “Sometimes we have to drive our own kids to tournaments… I feel like sometimes people don’t realize it’s not just a game for these girls. It’s crucial in some of these girls’ lives. It might be the only place to learn responsibility, accountability… Especially to mine. She was looking forward to playing four years of soccer.”

According to Liberty’s Athletic Director, this is not the end of the story for soccer at Liberty High School.

“We love soccer and all the things that it can do and has done for our student athletes and community,” Ernst said. “We have not canceled the program but merely can't field a team this season with the MSHSAA required number of participants. We have made efforts as a school to develop interest in the team this year and plan to continue to monitor the growth of our youth leagues in the future.  We sincerely hope to field a full soccer team next year and for many years to come.”