Business Ethics Case Study: GRPS Public School

Corporate

GRPS is a public school district, therefore considered a non-profit organization. The majority of the funds that enter the district are allocated by the local, state and federal funds. Essentially, the funds come from the amount of student’s school district serves. There is a set amount of money funded per student. This covers the immense costs of teacher salaries, administration salaries, custodial staff, transportation, facility use, technology, educational materials, etc.

Within the Athletics department, there is a separation of Board of Education funds (BOE) and Grant funds. The grant is funded via the Student Advancement Foundation, specifically the grant is called GR8 Sports, Great Kids. It is privately funded by donors like Doug and Maria DeVos. The annual grant has allowed us to expand athletics programming across the district, offering 14 sports to 22 schools involving students’ grades 6-8.

The corporate social responsibility of the middle school athletics program is to offer quality programming to student

involved in sports. Middle School Athletics offers the important opportunity to prepare student-athletes for high school. The middle school athletic programs focus on all the key elements of great programming. These elements include academic achievement, overall improved school performance, athletic skill development, strong positive coach relationships and community service. Having a quality middle school experience gives student-athletes a well-prepared transition into high schools to continue their path towards higher levels of success (Grand Rapids Public Schools, 2016).
Personal
From a financial perspective, the work accomplished within GRPS Athletics is measured the number of students participating in sports. The more students we get to participate, the better the results are for our donors. However, the smile on a students’ face and the growth and development of that student is priceless. This would be considered and intangible service. The buyers of services, cannot see, feel, hear, or taste the service before it is bought (Mowen et al., 2014). Personally, watching a kid grow into a competitive athlete, knowing that he or she will uphold the values acquired at the middle school level is something that is immeasurable. These young adolescents will become the adults that we rely on tomorrow. It is the best interest of the community and society as whole, to ensure that they acquire life skills through sports. Our vision statement reads as follows, “Grand Rapids Public Schools will create educational opportunities and experiences through athletics, which will enhance student achievement student development and school culture” (grps.org/athletics, 2016). This statement reads true to our mission. Middle School Athletics embodies and teaches skills that will be utilized in life. Middle School Athletics has stayed true to the mission of providing quality athletic experiences, instilling competiveness and responsibility that will feed into the high school programs.
Christian and Ethical Worldview
From a Christian and ethical social responsibility, GRPS places an emphasis several areas such as health, discipline and providing opportunity for young adolescents. Many of the student-athletes in GRPS can not afford pay to play sports because they live in low income households. GRPS Athletics ultimate goal is to continue keep to students active and healthy. Athletics promotes an early active lifestyle in students. As they grow older, the active and healthy lifestyle becomes apart of them. Currently Michigan's adult obesity rate is currently 30.7% (The State of Obesity, 2016). However, the childhood obesity rate recently declined. Eighteen states, including Michigan, and one U.S. territory experienced a decline in obesity rates among 2- to 4-year-olds from low-income families between 2008 and 2011. Over that period, Michigan's rate fell from 13.9% to 13.2%, a statistically significant decrease according to the CDC analysis (The State of Obesity, 2016).
Privately and publically funded programs like these improve the devastating fact of childhood obesity. It is our ethical obligation to ensure that the children of today have a chance in the future of tomorrow. Living active and health lifestyles decreases the chance of diseases and overweight health conditions.
The word discipline stems from the root word disciple. Disciple refers to the followers of Jesus that were obedient and adherent to Jesus’ teachings. In sports, discipline is the foundation of teamwork. A student-athlete must be discipline in the following areas. First and foremost, an athlete must be disciplined in his or her academics. They have to eligible to play, thus the notion student-athlete, meaning student first, athlete second. Secondly, a student-athlete must exhibit maturity because they are a representative of their team and school. They must be disciplined enough to stay away from trouble or actions that would jeopardize their team. Lastly, a student-athlete utilizes discipline in the game of play. It takes time, dedication and commitment to attend practice, learn plays and to create a team bond. An athlete has to be disciplined enough to listen to their coach, respect their teammates feedback and accepting judgment from an official.
GRPS proudly partners with SAF, offering students an opportunity to play sports. Realistically, sports are not cheap. With a large percentage of GRPS students on free and reduced lunch, paying for sports and leisure after school activities is not a viable option. Sports can be quite expensive depending on the type of equipment, transportation and uniform costs. Football for instance is probably the most expensive sport being offered to young adolescents. Many programs offer the opportunity to play football at their parks and recreation department or local rocket league football team. The average costs per athlete are about $500-$700 each year. This includes the annual fee to play for the team, uniform costs (jersey and football pants) helmet, shoulder pads, pants pads, cleats and a mouth piece. Some optional equipment or accessories would include customized gloves, visors, chin straps, socks or additional sleeves or compression shirts and pants.
At GRPS we reduce the costs and offer the sport of football nearly free. GRPS is not pay to play school district. The only thing a student has to pay for is the seasonal costs of supplemental insurance, which the parks and recreation or rocket leagues do not offer. We provide transportation uniforms (jersey and football pants) helmet, shoulder pads, pants pads, cleats and a mouth piece.
Conclusion
In closing, each organization or business budgets their finances differently, especially, non-profit organizations.

Public schools are not in the business of making money. Their primary goal is to utilize the resources they are given efficiently, accounting for dollar spent. GRPS middle school athletics projects all of their expense in a worst case scenario. This allows the middle school athletics to properly forecast the budget just in case something goes wrong. The biggest expense for any organization is the cost of its employees. Employees include: Athletic Directors (management), coaches, officials, and game help. The second biggest cost is transporting teams to competition site locations. Properly utilizing donor funds has allowed the MS Athletics department to stretch grant dollars beyond the original date range. It has also instilled a sense of security within the donors, knowing that their money is not being

wasted.