DONNELLSON – Central Lee High School will have their own keglers next winter.
The district has been sharing that sport in a 28E agreement with Keokuk, but a survey of students this year produced results that indicated the district may be able to field its own squad.
At Tuesday’s monthly summer meeting of the Central Lee Board of Directors, Central Lee Activities Director Wes McGraw, advocated for the district to form its own bowling team.
McGraw released a survey showing students were asked if they would be interested in bowling if the Hawks created a program, and then asked if Central Lee didn’t have a program would they be interested in joining the Keokuk bowling team.
Of the 159 responses, 21 students said they would be interested in a Central Lee program, while another 50 said they might be interested in a Hawk bowling program. The other 88 responses indicated they wouldn’t be interested in bowling for Central Lee.
When asked if they would be interested in joining the Keokuk program again, only 17 said yes, while 26 said they might be interested, and 116 said they wouldn’t want to bowl for Keokuk.
McGraw said it would cost about $6,000 per season for the Hawks to practice and hold meets at Arrowhead Bowl in Keokuk. That includes equipment and practices. For an entire year, that cost goes to $8,000 and gives student-athletes access year-round when lanes are available.
Uniforms are about $60 per person and the district gets to keep all the gate which is usually about 50-75 people per event, per McGraw.
Practices would be held Mondays and Wednesdays from 3:45 to 5 p.m. with meets primarily on Tuesday with three to four home meets, typically triangulars, starting at 6 p.m with about 12 meets per year.
“We shared bowling with Keokuk the last few years and last year we weren’t sure if they were going to renew (the agreement) and we kind of went through a phase there,” McGraw said.
“This year they're trying to figure out some things and communication has been kind of tough with them. So, I sent out a survey to our students in 8th grade through 11th grade to gauge their interest.”
He said personally he thinks it would be good for Central Lee to have their own team at this point.
“There’s a good amount of teams quite a bit smaller than us, but there are quite a few teams in southeast Iowa.”
An agenda item included an approval of the 28E with Keokuk, but the board unanimously denied the motion in favor of the district forming its own bowling team.
Superintendent Dr. Andy Crozier said he supported the move.
“I don’t want to share a team. I think we can have our program and we have the funds to start that program,” he said. “I feel more confident in starting the bowling program than I did with soccer, and soccer has been just fine.”
In an unrelated issue, the board voted down a resolution to transfer funds from sales tax to the district Physical Plant and Equipment Levy. The district erred in paying an invoice of approximately $80,000 for a bus out of the PPEL fund, which does fund equipment purchases. However, the fund didn’t have sufficient funds, so the district bought the bus in 2023 out of the sales tax fund, but erroneously paid the invoice out of the PPEL fund showing a negative balance.
An audit flagged the error and the Department of Education told the board they needed to start levying for PPEL funds again to wipe out the negative equity. Crozier told the board that it was a simple accounting error and wanted to investigate the issue further with the DOE. The board rejected the resolution for the transfer to allow Crozier additional time to sort the issue out with the DOE.
In other action, the board voted:
• 4-0 to approve next year’s School Resource Agreement with Lee County Sheriff’s Dept.
• 4-0 to continue the district’s banking agreement with Pilot Grove Savings Bank.
* 4-0 to approve the purchase of a skid loader for maintenance staff.
• 4-0 to approve Taylor Jones as the next Student Representative on the school board.
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