There have been rumors spreading around that there is a difference in the funding between the A-wing and the F-wing. At Silver Creek High School, the A-wing is the music wing, and the F-wing is the athletics wing. Both use school funds and require students to participate, but is there a difference in the amount of funding?

Patrick DeCamillis, the assistant principal and the Athletics Director, shut down any notion that there is a difference in funding between the two wings.

“Each department in Silver Creek has a district fund that the district gives them money, that is to cover basic necessities,” said DeCamillis.

While the district can supply money for basic items, not everything that is needed is covered for the A-wing because the equipment is so much more expensive.

“The number of students is a big part of [deciding how much money each wing gets from the district] one thing that each of them has to deal with is the price of the equipment that they have to use,” stated DeCamillis.

As far as funding goes, the organization that handles outside school funding for the A-wing is a parent-run organization called the Silver Creek Organization for the Performing Arts (SCOPA) which started back in 2004. Students and parents are responsible for raising most of the money at different events.

“The organization raises funds throughout the year that go to fund expenses of the band, choir, orchestra, and theater programs that are not covered by the school or the school district, from instruments to microphones to production rights,” stated Heather Beasley, a member on the SCOPA board of directors.

Within SCOPA, there is a group of parents that are on a board who organize events and opportunities to raise funds for SCOPA. Their job is to handle all of the financial aspects of what SCOPA does, including keeping records, taxes, and where the money that is raised goes. They also are at different non-music based school events talking about SCOPA.

“You’ll see SCOPA officers at all kinds of school events from SCLA Capstone nights to Back to School nights to Open Houses, meeting families, answering parent questions, and building community,” said Beasley.

There are many roles in what students, parents, and teachers have to do for SCOPA and how they help with bingo. Bingo is an event at the Longmont Bingo Hall where students volunteer in different positions to help with the game bingo. Courtney Dowling, orchestra teacher at Silver Creek, elaborates on the topic of SCOPA and what the directors have to do.

“All of the directors have gotten licensed by the state of Colorado to become certified games managers, so one is at every session. We have a couple of parent volunteers that help out as well,” stated Dowling.

To raise money for their wing, directors are also required to participate in volunteering on their own time. The district funds around 30% of the money made for the A-wing; however, there is much more needed for all the items required for each class.

“I believe that we each get maybe 2,000-3,00 dollars from the district to spend on our ensembles but then on top of that we spend anywhere between 6,000 to 26,000 a year on our students and our instruments and clinics and transportations,” stated Dowling.

The A-wing uses many resources to fund the necessities for each of the classes that take place there. Athletics have a similar funding source, The Raptor Activities Booster Club (RABC) which handles most of their funding.

“For the F-wing, we volunteer at concessions for various sports, I play volleyball so I’ve volunteered at other sports concessions so that raises money,” said freshmen True Campbell, a member of the F and A wing communities.

As far as how much time it takes in each wing for volunteering, some students think that there might be a difference between the effort and time put in. Students do a variety of activities from helping out at games to setting up donation pages for athlete’s friends and family.

“There’s not much of a requirement [when volunteering] because we all do our part in making sure we have all the equipment we need and the funding,” stated Campbell.

It’s important to recognize that both wings need to raise most of their money for themselves, whether that means hosting bingo or volunteering at games, and students need to recognize that in both wings students are doing what they can to support their community.

“We have to be able to work together and we have to be able to fundraise with SCOPA with RABC to ensure our programs stay what they are,” stated DeCamilis.

Both the A-wing and the F-wing have had rumors spread around about the difference of their funding, but it is important to recognize that rumors are not always true and volunteers are always needed.