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Friday, October 23, 1998
Round Rock voters to decide stadium fate
ROUND ROCK, Texas (AP) -- A school band and high school cheerleaders
are the latest players caught up in a political controversy that's
rocking Round Rock: Should public money help pay for a baseball
stadium?
Pitching legend Nolan Ryan leads a group that purchased the
Jackson (Miss.) Generals in April and hopes to bring the team
to Round Rock for the 2000 season.
The city plans to use hotel-motel tax revenue to pay its share
of the $13 million project -- about $6.8 million.
But that has become a political issue that will be decided
in the Nov. 3 elections, and it gave Principal Bob Carter pause
when he saw a flier cross his desk at Voight Elementary School
this week.
The flier invited students and their families to a baseball
rally Saturday featuring Ryan and showing off his team's new logo.
The appropriateness of any relationship between public and
private entities is exactly what gave Carter pause when he looked
at the flier. Should public schools help promote the rally, which
itself is partly political?
The answer for Carter was no, a decision echoed by others in
the district.
The school district has a policy of not entering the political
domain when individual candidates are running, Carter said, and
the baseball issue should be no different.
Initially the Chisholm Trail Middle School band and the Round
Rock High School cheerleading squad were going to perform.
But parents called to complain, and interim superintendent
Mike Jolly said that if students want to participate, they must
do so voluntarily and in a way that does not affiliate them with
the school.
That came as surprise to baseball officials who wanted to give
the school groups a chance to perform before a large audience,
and, possibly, on television.
They also were surprised that the event, which was planned
as a day of fun and to help charities and local businesses, has
become the source of controversy.
"This is just supposed to be a fun day," said J.J.
Gottsch, the team's marketing director, who said the team plans
a similar event every year.
But ever since a citizen group called Strikeout Corporate Welfare
waded in, the baseball issue has been contentious.
After putting the issue to a vote through a petition drive,
the group received $5,000 from the Texas Hotel-Motel Association,
which says the stadium's financial deal is illegal.
Aware of such political tumult, principal Carter decided not
to distribute the flier to his students.
"I felt like this is a political rally," he said.
"The whole subject is political. I feel strongly that politics
have no place in a public school. So I decided to err on the side
of caution. If the baseball team had already been approved, then
I would have been delighted to distribute the fliers."
Reid Ryan, Nolan's son and president of the baseball team,
and members of Round Rock's Downtown Business Association said
the event is not only to drum up support for the team.
"This is not just a political rally," Reid Ryan said,
adding that seven little league teams will be honored. "It's
a baseball rally. It's not political by nature; it's baseball
by nature."
Those attending are asked to donate coats for the Williamson
County Coats for Kids and to bring canned food to help the victims
of the recent floods. Proceeds generated from a dunking booth
will go to the Children's Hospital of Austin.
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