State proposes cutting sports funding

loading...

State funding for school sports and activities such as band and drama clubs is on the chopping block as part of the revised budget proposal outlined last week by the Baldacci administration to help bridge a $74 million three-year shortfall.

Funding for the programs would end in the 2008-09 school year.

“Under the Essential Programs and Services program someone has determined that sports are not essential, mock trial is not essential,” Brewer Superintendent Daniel Lee told his school board Monday.

“Is there a school in Maine that’s going to eliminate basketball?” he asked. “We’re going to have to pick that [cost] up on the local side.”

The proposed cuts in funding for co-curricular and extracurricular activities are designed to save the state $5.4 million over the 2007-09 biennial budget.

Co-curricular activities include chess clubs, yearbook, mock trial and other programs. Extracurricular activities are mainly sports.

“It will affect us significantly,” SAD 22 Superintendent Rick Lyons said Wednesday. “We would obviously be very concerned if the state does not recommend that [co-curricular and extracurricular funding remain] in the EPS formula.

“It’s a huge worry,” he said. SAD 22 includes Hampden, Newburgh and Winterport.

State revenues are projected at $34 million less than estimates for the rest of this year, and to fall short by approximately $20 million for both 2008 and 2009.

The state’s supplemental budget, which covers unanticipated state government costs through June, was passed in February.

School leaders all over Maine are beginning to discuss the recent changes to Gov. John Baldacci’s $6.4 billion biennial budget plan for 2007-09.

There are several education components within Baldacci’s biennial budget plan, including a proposal to reduce the number of school districts, delay a scheduled increase in the EPS funding to 55 percent for a year, as well as the proposed co-curricular and extracurricular cuts.

Under the state’s current EPS formula, all co-curricular activities “are not part of the curriculum, but lend themselves to achieving Maine Learning Results” and are funded in full, David Connerty-Marin, spokesman for the Department of Education, said Tuesday.

The state funds 10 percent of extracurricular activities, he said.

No state funds are designated for sports-related or co-curricular travel costs, such as busing.

By proposing the co-curricular and extracurricular cuts, the state is sending a strong message, and it’s the wrong message, Bangor Superintendent Robert Ervin said Wednesday.

“Participation is directly related to higher performance in the classroom,” he said. “In my book, we should be doing more – not less.”

A number of reports and studies support his statements, Ervin said. Lyons and Lee agree with Ervin.

“Are we saying extra- and co-curricular activities are not essential?” Lyons questioned. “I would argue it is a large part.”

State legislators now are working on the biennial budget and must complete it by the end of June in order to avoid a statewide government shutdown. Both the House and the Senate must pass it with a two-thirds majority for it to be enacted by July 1 because legislators missed an April 1 deadline to complete the process.

“If the Legislature or the full Senate [or House] doesn’t want to take away from the co-curricular [or extracurricular funds], they’ll have to find additional revenues somewhere else,” Connerty-Marin said.

In addition to cutting sports and co-curricular subsidies in 2008, the governor’s recent changes to the budget would maintain total education funding at last year’s rate of 53.5 percent, a move estimated to save the state $17 million.

Brewer school board Chairman Mark Farley questioned the reasoning behind the proposed changes.

“The purpose of increasing [state funding] to 55 percent was to reduce the local tax burden,” he said, adding that if residents are asked to pick up the costs for co-curricular and extracurricular activities, their tax burden is bound to increase. Playing sports is “what gets a lot of kids through the [school] day.”

Brewer school board member Mark Chambers said he couldn’t agree more.

“It keeps them committed to school,” he said. “It’s the glue of your community whether you have 30 kids or 30,000 kids.”

Brewer school board members also expressed concerns about how smaller, rural communities or schools in poorer areas of the state would fund the co-curricular and extracurricular activities.

The Maine Principal’s Association is also concerned, Larry A. LaBrie, the MPA’s assistant executive director, said Wednesday. He said many sports and after-school activities are expensive given travel, equipment and coaching costs.

“We’re still trying to digest” it, he said.

Asking local sports booster clubs to absorb the uncovered costs is an unreasonable request, athletic directors for Bangor and Brewer high schools said. Brewer’s high school sports budget is $423,000. Bangor’s high school sports budget is $768,000.

“Our athletic booster club brings in $15,000 to $20,000 each year but what they do is purchase items that we can’t afford, such as cheerleading or wrestling mats, and swimming touch pads,” Dennis Kiah, Brewer athletic director, said Thursday. “There is no way they would be able to support our whole budget.”

Over the years, the booster club in Bangor has raised tens of thousands of dollars, but the funds were invested in school sports facilities and items and for supplies needed by students, Steve Vanidestine, Bangor athletic director, said Thursday.

“If a youngster does not have the funds to have spikes, a glove, or skates, whatever they might need” to participate, a request is made to the booster club, he said. “They have been very good with supporting that effort.”

Boosters raise funds by selling food at concession stands, holding special exhibition games and by selling program ads, but raise nowhere near the amount needed to support all of Bangor’s programs, Vanidestine said.

Connerty-Marin pointed out that school departments statewide are receiving more money under the ramp-up in EPS funds, and that under the latest proposal the state is expected to reach the full 55 percent of EPS funding by 2009.

“It will be up to the [local] school boards on how to spend the state and local money they receive,” he said.

Until a final state budget is passed, school departments are in a holding pattern, Lee said.

“I’m in that dark house tripping over a cat that isn’t there,” he told the Brewer school board.

Sports and co-curricular costs

Currently, the state funds 10 percent of sports and all of co-curricular activity costs. Below are approximate expenses, including travel costs not covered by the state, that some area schools pay to provide students with programs:

CITY Total funded High school High school High school

(k-12) total sports co-curricular

Bangor $1.2 million $904,550 $768,250 $136,300

Brewer $566,000 $502,000 $423,000 $79,000

SAD 22-Hampden $701,000 $487,100 $406,100 $81,000

Old Town $364,500 $296,400 $268,000 $28,400

Orono $500,000 $320,000 $260,000 $60,000