Following others' example, backers turn to nonprofits to make up the difference
After a huge outcry from parents, students, and educators, Stoneham is taking steps to protect high school sports and other popular school programs from devastating budget cuts this fall.
But the longer-term prospects for sports and the other programs remain uncertain, prompting some Stoneham school advocates to consider private donations, higher user fees, or another tax increase to put the town budget on stronger footing.
Stoneham officials see a trash fee recently passed to raise money for the town and school budgets as a short-term fix. It's "only a Band-Aid," said School Committee member Marie Christie. "You've got to fix the structural problem of the town, but you can't fix it on the backs of 2,800 students."
For now, school officials are hoping the $200-per-household trash fee passed by the Board of Selectmen June 26 will provide enough money to restore most of the 13 areas -- including high school sports -- that were targeted for cuts earlier by the School Committee. The day after the selectmen raised the trash fee, the School Committee voted, 4 to 1, to keep high school sports and other threatened school programs, even though it was unclear how the $1.3 million raised through the trash fee would be split between the school and town budgets.
The threatened cuts in Stoneham have drawn widespread attention in the town, on talk radio, and around Greater Boston. Students, parents, and alumni hope to channel the recent interest and passion into donations for a local education foundation. Similar efforts have been successful in Winthrop, which raised $750,000 in private donations for sports and activities in three years, and Lexington, where a private group has written more than $2 million in enrichment grants since 1991.
Stoneham already has two foundations that help support the schools. Since 1994, the Stoneham Business and Community Educational Foundation has given about 150 grants totaling $80,000 to support youth enrichment, including school grants.
A separate nonprofit, the Stoneham Public Schools Foundation, formed after a property tax override failed in 2004. The foundation has since made about $30,000 in cash and in-kind contributions, said Chris Willard, the parent who founded the group. Among other work, the foundation contributed furniture and monitors for a computer lab and wrote grants to sustain the math team and pep band and hire an additional girls' track coach.
Selectman Frank A. Vallarelli, a 1974 Stoneham High graduate, said residents and even distant alumni are eager to donate. "I've gotten several phone calls from people who were ex-athletes of Stoneham High who don't even live in town anymore, and they don't have children in the school system, and they still said, 'What can we do to help?' " said Vallarelli.
Jesse Haley, a 1989 graduate who lives in Somerville, started savethespartans.com and a companion MySpace profile to keep the community informed and link scattered alumni. In the first week, the effort attracted nearly 400 MySpace friends and impassioned comments about the value of sports and activities. Many alumni are eager to contribute, said Haley, whose site links to stonehampublicschoolsfoundation.org, where people can donate online. At each site, visitors are also brainstorming about fund-raising events.
Though many towns have booster programs for individual teams or activities, broad education foundations are the exception, not the rule. Even the best- endowed organizations provide less than a 1 percent boost to their local school budget, said Glenn Koocher, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. In theory, the organizations should provide supplemental programs, not sustain budget line items, given the uncertainty of relying on fund-raising to pay the bills, Koocher said.
"It's not the ideal way to make public policy," he said. But for some, "it's the only alternative they had to provide opportunities for kids."
The Triton Regional School District faced a situation similar to Stoneham's last year after an override failed, with sports and activities eliminated at the high school that serves Newbury, Rowley, and Salisbury. The regional school board tried to preserve programs by passing on the full cost to students. Last summer, football fees were expected to exceed $800, and hockey was going to cost more than $1,500 per student, said Kevin McLaughlin, who was then the assistant principal and athletic director and is now the principal.
Faced with those fees, residents formed Triton Heroes and raised $150,000 in a year, through direct appeals, corporate donations, and events such as car washes and a road race. The quick work allowed the school to reduce user fees until voters could consider an override, which passed. Next year's budget includes money for sports and activities; student fees will be $250 per sport and $100 per activity without the need for donations. In Stoneham last year, sports user fees were $250 per sport with a $1,000 family cap.
Winthrop is the model for restoring sports and activities with private relief. The Viking Pride Foundation formed shortly after an override failed in 2004. In that community of 18,000 -- about 4,000 fewer than Stoneham -- the foundation raised nearly $300,000 in its first year. In three years, it has raised about $750,000, said Richard Fucillo, an alumnus and assistant high school football coach who helped create the foundation.
"We've gained the support of the community because it wasn't just viewed as athletics," Fucillo said. The foundation has provided about $100,000 a year for sports -- supplementing user fees, which have dropped from $325 to $200 over three years -- and also written a number of K-12 grants to support academic programs and extracurricular activities.
Viking Pride has engendered community spirit and produced some memorable events, like a $60-a-plate Great Reunion dinner dance on the football field that drew nearly 1,000 people and attracted alumni from as far back as the 1920s.
But despite the success of Viking Pride, Fucillo said he hopes Stoneham will not have to replicate its work. Winthrop has yet to restore tax funding to sports and school activities, and the pace of private donations is trailing off.
"We're growing weary," he said. "We can't do this forever."
Stoneham town officials also hope recently approved developments, such as a new
The frantic budget maneuvers began after Stoneham voters rejected a property tax override on June 19. The override, which failed 2,936 to 2,699, would have meant an additional $200 or so a year for the average taxpayer.
After the override failed, the School Committee identified 13 cuts. Now, with money from the trash fee, school officials hope to bring back sports and restore seven other cuts from the School Committee's list of 13.
The School Committee will probably drop its plan to send sixth-graders back to elementary school (an option that was meant to save middle school costs); will spare elementary and middle school art and music; and will restore three eliminated positions (a high school assistant principal, middle school media specialist, and middle school physical education teacher).
Five other cuts may remain. That may mean laying off all elementary school media center staff, two elementary teachers, two custodians, and a school nurse. The middle school would also forgo the restoration of specialties eliminated in past years, such as industrial arts and consumer science. The School Committee will discuss those cutbacks later this summer.
Eric Moskowitz can be reached at emoskowitz@globe.com. 