On April 22, the Gunn Sports Boosters hosted the “Clash of the Titans,” a basketball game between the students and the staff that also served as a fundraiser for Gunn’s athletic and physical education programs.

“The idea is to have some fun, to increase awareness among the parents of the need to improve the athletic facilities at Gunn, and also to raise some money,” Sports Booster president Bob Cranmer-Brown said.

The event was part of an ongoing campaign to improve Gunn’s athletic facilities. The PAUSD Board of Education approved the installation of football field lights on March 28. “Trying to raise money has been a very long, drawn-out project,” Cranmer-Brown said. “We have given the district enough money to be able to move forward with building the lights, but some of the money that we have given them we haven’t yet raised as donations. We’ve had parents put money forward on the basis that they will be reimbursed by future donations.”

Cranmer-Brown hopes that the next bond measure—coming up late 2007—will provide funds for other projects, such as a new swimming pool. “The school board and the school district are now working on the bond measure, and one of the top priorities for Gunn is the swimming pool,” Cranmer-Brown said. “We’re in a fairly advanced position in that we have now raised the $246,000 necessary for the plans. We’re now talking to the architect about sending that money and getting the pool designed and approved so it’ll be ready to go once the bond measure is approved.”

Sports Boosters is also working on building a second gym.“We’re now working with the architects and with parents and with the coaches to determine what our needs are for the gym so that we can work up from our needs to design the gym,” Cranmer-Brown said.

Gunn is behind surrounding schools in terms of athletic facilities. “If you look at the major athletic facilities that you’d want—you’d want an all-weather track, you’d want at least a 35-meter pool, you’d want a turfed football field, you’d want an adequate sized soccer field and you’d want a decent sized baseball field,” Cranmer-Brown said.

Cranmer-Brown believes that if more parents and students communicate with the school board, Gunn athletic facilities will become a higher priority in the upcoming bond measure. “What we’d like to see is the parents and the students at Gunn High School rise up and have their voices heard by the school board,” Cranmer-Brown said. “If 1,000 people send e-mails and phone calls and letters saying that it’s time that the athletic facilities were properly upgraded, then it wouldn’t be too hard for us, instead of just getting a pool and a gym, to also add on turf for the football field. And we have a perfect location for a lacrosse and soccer field at the far end of the campus.”

Junior Geoffrey Schiebinger, who is on Gunn’s tennis team, is not very enthusiastic about improving athletic facilities. “I believe the school should spend the money on academics instead,” Schiebinger said. “Not all students do sports. All students do academics.”