At some schools, budget cuts put the kibosh on
sports
At Dixon High School near Sacramento, junior
varsity football players Nick LeBleu, left, and
Ryan Gaudy are playing again after a public
outcry helped restore sports programs.
HIGH
SCHOOL SPORTS IN CRISIS
MISSING IN MICHIGAN
Here
is how one region is dealing with budget
challenges for its athletics departments. Sports
cuts by school in the Lansing, Mich., area:
Bath:
Three varsity assistant coaches and the middle
school athletic director, and a reduction in
supplies and training equipment purchased this
year, to save $35,000.
Corunna:
Some tournaments and equipment that will make up
a 20% cut.
Dansville:
$7,000.
East Lansing:
Three assistant coaches, some transportation,
and the school is no longer paying for bowling
teams.
Fowlerville:
$15,000.
Grand Ledge:
Some junior varsity assistant coaches, booster
clubs taking over some event entry fees, no new
uniforms and less equipment. The school also is
considering providing only one-way
transportation to some events, to offset a cut
of $132,000.
Haslett:
Equipment purchases meant to save $20,000.
Laingsburg:
Two assistant coaches totaling $10,000.
Lansing Everett, Eastern and Sexton:
One football, one wrestling, two swimming and
two track assistants at each school.
Okemos:
One assistant coach, still need to cut $7,000
during the school year.
Owosso:
Some travel expenses.
Portland:
Will no longer sponsor bowling teams.
St. Johns:
Supply purchases totaling $10,000.
Stockbridge:
Entire uniform budget. Programs must fund raise
for replacements.
Williamston:
Assistant athletic director in charge of, in
part, scheduling and meeting representation.
By
the Lansing (Mich.) State Journal
Instead of gearing up to run cross country for
Grove City High School in Ohio, Andy Bennett is
training for a marathon.
It
will give the 16-year-old some consolation
because sports programs and clubs at his school
have been shut down. An hour after the last bell
each afternoon, it's lights out at the school.
Bennett and his classmates won't have
homecoming, prom or a student government —
activities that, like sports, are fixtures in
American high schools but no longer exist at
Grove City because of a financial crisis.
That's
the plight of all students who attend
South-Western City Schools, which serves part of
Columbus
and nearby towns and is Ohio's sixth-largest
school district. The district has been in dire
financial straits for years and is being
squeezed further by the economic downturn. By
canceling activities, the district cut $2.5
million in expenses, district spokeswoman Sandy
Nekoloff says.
"I
thought it was the worst thing in the world,"
Bennett says of the school board's decision to
cancel activities after a proposed property tax
hike was rejected by voters in August, the third
time it failed.
In
this district, no one has been spared, not even
Grove City High's marching band. "There's no
football games. There's nowhere for the marching
band to march," Nekoloff says.
High
schools across the USA are reporting that the
recession has led to similar financial
difficulties for extracurricular programs,
forcing cost-cutting that is particularly
painful now, as fall sports seasons open. From
Hawaii to Rhode Island, school systems are
trimming compensation for coaches, eliminating
transportation, adding or increasing athletic
fees for students, holding fundraising drives,
cutting back on night games to save electricity
costs and dropping some sports and related
events altogether.
In
Nevada, this "is going to be the worst year
financially for school districts in history —
and 2010-11 is going to be worse," says Eddie
Bonine, executive director of the Nevada
Interscholastic Activities Association. "We may
be told to do more next year."
In
Michigan, Jamie Gent, athletics director at
Haslett High near Lansing, says, "There's no
money, period. We're coming to a stage in the
next three years that if things don't get
better, (it could damage) sports altogether. Who
do you pick? What stays? What sport doesn't
stay?"
Bennett says he was close to transferring to a
school outside his district so he could earn his
third varsity letter in cross country. His
parents were willing to pay more than $3,000 for
him to attend an out-of-district public school
or private school, he says.
He
knows of other families who are paying steep
tuition so their teens can play sports.
Such a
move from Grove City would have been difficult
academically and socially, Bennett says. He is a
top student taking Advanced Placement courses
and didn't want to hurt his chances of getting
into his dream college, the Air Force Academy.
"I've been in the Grove City public system
forever," he says. "Switching to another school
with no friends was not very appealing."
Some
athletes may miss out
The
mood at school is grim, others say. "We're going
to have all these idle hands," says Drew
Eschbach, who was the cross country coach.
Top-tier athletes will be OK, Eschbach says,
because they will transfer to schools with
better-funded programs or form their own clubs.
He says he worries about average athletes who
will miss out on the collegiality and sense of
belonging that a team or club can provide.
Some
in the community have accused school system
officials of canceling activities to strong-arm
residents into passing a tax increase. Nekoloff
says activities were canceled after other cuts
failed to help solve the financial problems.
"We've had $22 million in reductions and more
than 330 positions reduced over the past three
years," she says.
Residents will vote on a scaled-back property
tax increase in November. The district estimates
the new proposal would cost the owner of a
$100,000 home an additional $18.89 a month in
property taxes. The median household income for
the area was $54,965 in 2007, according to the
U.S. Census Bureau.
Pay-to-play plan considered
District officials are studying a pay-to-play
model, which increasingly has been used across
the country. Nekoloff says if South-Western's
proposed tax increase passes, the board could
bring back activities under this system and
students would share costs with the district.
At
most schools, pay-to-play fees cover a portion
of a team's expenses and school districts kick
in the rest. But those amounts can be
disproportionate, as is the case at Brighton
High School in Michigan.
Brighton offers 32 sports and fields 98 teams,
enviable by any school's standards. But the
district funds only 38% of the athletic
department's nearly $1.5 million in
expenditures; the other 62% is self-generated
through fundraisers and fees, athletics director
John Thompson says.
Athletes pay $175 a sport, although the fee for
a third sport is waived. Students also pay
transportation fees ranging from $30 to $70 a
sport. Fees are waived for those with financial
hardship.
"We've
started chipping away at the model that existed
when I was a kid," Thompson says.
"Unfortunately, one day sports will be out there
for people who have money. We can say we'll take
care of those without money, but I can tell you
it will be the kids with talent. The average kid
is going to get left behind. That whole
development factor, they're going to miss out on
it."
Contributing: Geoff Kimmerly of the Lansing
(Mich.) State Journal; Chris Gabel of the Reno
Gazette-Journal
