When a Community Loses
User fees could threaten the growth of high school sports
Eight years ago, when my daughters were in diapers, I took an assistant coaching post with the Hamilton-Wenham High School hockey team. It was one of those rare moments when life allows you to repay a debt. I lost my dad before eighth grade. Sports kept me heading in the right direction despite the upheaval of puberty. I had a place to go every day after school, and coaches who cared about me. The H-W Generals, like most teams, had kids who simply needed someone to offer guidance and maybe a firm hand. My wife joked that I had two daughters and 25 sons.
Today, this two-town district no longer has a hockey team. There was enough interest, and both towns are well-to-do suburbs, so how could this happen? The answer is a cautionary tale for public school athletic departments statewide. For many school districts, the combination of local, state, and federal funding and grant money leads to budgets that barely cover academic programs (including teacher salaries, supplies, and building upkeep). To subsidize extracurricular activities -- especially sports -- districts turn to override votes, fund-raising, booster donations, and user fees.
That last category is a deal breaker for many parents. It certainly spelled the demise of the H-W Generals hockey team. In the Hamilton-Wenham district, the user fee for 2001-02 was a flat $200 per sport. Now, athletes or parents must pay 100 percent of the cost of each sport. For 2009, the tab for track and field is $232. Girls' tennis is $326, baseball is $604. The user fee for football last season was $969, even after relief from gate receipts. The hockey fee for 2007-08 was $1,650; fewer than 10 players signed on, and the team folded.
"Public schools are being forced to impose fees," says H-W superintendent Marinel McGrath. "Right now, we charge for everything that we can legally charge for, and that's not what public schools were supposed to be."
Neither the state nor the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association tracks user fees, but Hingham resident Dick Hawkins catalogs them on his website, SuperEdNet.com, and says fees have been rising steadily since around 2000. "There is a very small percentage [of districts], maybe 25 percent or even less, that don't charge fees," Hawkins says. "And those that don't are thinking about it now."
Sure, there are districts that charge less than Hamilton-Wenham, and most offer financial assistance to those in need, but that's little consolation to thousands of families hit by these costs.
"Parents are being fee'd to death," Hawkins says.
That doesn't bode well for high school sports in Massachusetts, which has seen an increase in participation recently, according to Paul Wetzel of the MIAA. Last year, the 370 MIAA-member schools, which encompass the vast majority of schools in the state, recorded 212,826 "participants" (since some students play multiple sports, the group estimates that roughly 165,000 individuals played sports). With about 340,000 total high school students in the state, that figure suggests that almost half the state's students participate in at least one sport. But educators and administrators believe that number would be even higher without fees. And it's fair to question whether more parents, like those in Hamilton-Wenham, will reach a breaking point.
There are no easy alternatives to user fees. Tax overrides are a difficult sell, especially in this economy. And federal stimulus money isn't likely to have a significant impact, if any. One option for some students is a cooperative team, where players from one district play for another. That's what a dozen H-W hockey players are doing this season, competing for a team hosted by Salem High School. The good news is that the savings are appealing -- Salem's team charges only a $200 fee. The bad news is that the kids no longer represent their community.
In the end, towns and districts will have to take an active role in fund-raising -- and get more creative. That's what Randolph did. The town passed an override last year, allowing schools to repeal a $100 activity fee. But even before that vote, volunteers within the school district had taken a proactive step. Beginning in 2007, they partnered with the New England Patriots in a program to raise money for athletics by helping with game-day concessions.
Recently, I bumped into a former "son" of mine and asked about a few of his teammates. I was interested in one in particular, a talented but troubled teen. "He's living in Florida," my former player said. "He's actually gotten his life together. Pretty amazing." I'd like to believe the lessons learned playing hockey for the Generals served some small role in that. I hope youngsters like him also get that chance.
FINIS
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