Help CHS Cross Country Overcome Budget Cuts

Update 06/28/2025: We have been notified that the trustees will be discussing the participation fee at the meeting on July 8th. However, at this point we do still have substantial transportation costs that will need to be surmounted by fundraising. We will also be selling snow cones at the July 4th celebrations at Memorial Park from 10:00 am - 4:00 pm, and at 6:00 pm - 10:00 pm at Brother’s Park as our 2024/2025 season’s first fundraiser.

Greetings from Caldwell Idaho! My name is Alexis and I am the proud coach of the Caldwell High School Cross Country team in the Fall, and the Track team in the spring. I have only ever coached at Caldwell High School and started doing so in 2020 because I wanted to get involved in the sport of running again after having ran collegiately. I graduated from Eastern Oregon University in 2014 and went straight into the workforce, steadily gaining unwanted weight and poor health until I started coaching and running with the CHS cross country team. Over the years, my cross country kids and I have continued to evolve as runners at different stages in life together, creating a community of support and celebration for when they kick butt at races across the Treasure Valley!

Under normal circumstances, our fundraising efforts, including selling hotdogs at the Caldwell 4th of July Celebration and concessions throughout the school year, would suffice to cover the operating costs of our program. This has been the case for many years since the Caldwell School District normally covers basic costs, such as transportation to local meets, 50% of uniform costs when needed, and other unavoidable costs associated with high school sports programs.

However, this May (2024), coach Derek Call and I were deeply saddened to learn that the $4.2 million supplemental levy that helps cover the mentioned costs would be cut from the school district budget. Aside from the closure of Lincoln Elementary and Canyon Springs High School, the budget cut really hit close to home when we were informed that the Cross Country and Track programs (Cross Country in the Fall and our same kids who also run Track in the spring) would now need to fundraise more money to cover what is normally covered by the school. Here are just a few ways this will affect our kids this coming season starting in August:

Students wishing to run Cross Country will now have to pay the school a “participation fee.”

Our goal as coaches is to raise enough funds to cover this fee for any students who wish to join the team so we don’t discriminate against kids who can’t afford to “pay to play.” A healthy activity and building memories in sports shouldn’t cost families more than it already does.

We are now responsible for ALL transportation costs to all races and track meets, even the local ones. With over 25-35 kids on our Cross Country team, contracting a school bus from Caldwell Transportation Company is unavoidable. As you can imagine, this is very expensive since the contracting of a school bus includes hiring a bus driver. Transportation alone costs upwards of $8000 a season, this is twice the amount that our program has ever been able to fundraise in a single year. To combat this cost, Coach Derek and I have taken the time to become “Minibus Certified” this year so we can simply rent a minibus and drive the team ourselves. This will help lower the cost of transportation but it will still be a significant added cost to our normal fundraising abilities.

We will no longer be allotted a 3rd coaching stipend, meaning we will not be able to hire a 3rd coach to help keep track of the kids on long-run days and assist with the JV team and fundraising efforts. Sadly, this loss can be a matter of safety for the kids as it takes an all-hands-on-deck approach to ensure none of our younger runners get dehydrated on a run, or get lost.

That being said, on behalf of our community’s youth, parents, and coaching team, I would like to humbly ask you to consider if providing any amount of financial support to our Cross Country and Track team is in your budget this year. I completely understand if the answer is no, as we have different seasons of life when we can and can’t lend a helping hand. Please know we do not take any recurring donations for granted. We never expect recurring donations from organizations but are eternally grateful when they happen.

If you want to get to know us a little more, take a look at our latest newsletter by following the link below!

CHS Distance Team 2024 Newsletter