I have no dog in this fight as my kids are older but it amazes me that the county public school where I live have no middle school XC teams. Once I retire ( hopefully in next 5 years) , I would like to work on changing this. They do have spring track. I would think this is a concept the high school XC programs would support. Any advice on how to start a grass roots campaign to get the ball rolling?
First, start with the school AD, then the principal, superintendent. If you don't get anywhere present at open forum to the school board. Make sure to present a budget on what you estimate the season would cost with:
Transportation
Uniforms
Meet Entries
Equipment (foam rollers, tent, etc)
Coach stipend
Got ours off the ground just a few years ago. Parent involvement and support helps w most school boards and principals.
Emphasize the positives.
Boys and Girls, No cuts, Everyone competes in most meets, No uniform issues - we just used the track teams uniforms,
volunteer coaches worked for us but eventually a full time paid coach is needed. Have and additional 20 or 30 kids paying participation fees and helping with fund raisers for booster club etc. Only 5 - 7 meets in the season so low transportation costs.
You could start a running club on your own rather than asking the school district to do it.
Reach out to the coaches at the high schools into which the middle school feeds. I bet they'd have some useful input.
Start as club sport. Volunteer coaches Pay to play so no cost to school. Pay covers meet entries and uniform cost (race singlet)
Middle school xc is in some ways a detriment to a HS program. For example in MS you get a ton of kids that go out for the sport which is great. However they tend to not take any running seriously and then get into races and struggle. So they come away from it thinking, "if a 1.5 mile xc race was hard, how can I ever fathom running 3.1?" You also have the kids that are in club soccer or whatever that are fit and do well which frustrates the kids that will be really good runners in HS.
Focus on your own running in retirement and let the MS kids do all the other sports that they will quit in HS. This will allow a good xc coach to scoop them up once they are in HS.