Crunch time for sports fees
Ad revenue seen as one way to limit school user charges
Peter Dewar, superintendent director for Joseph P. Keefe Technical High School in Framingham, is worried enough about funding sports to consider imposing user fees -- yet he's worried the fees will harm the very program he's trying to preserve.
"Costs are rising so fast, it's causing me to look at possibly having fees," said Dewar. "For the most part, students don't come here for athletics, but because it's a vocational school, when they can play sports without fees, it appeals to them to do so. We do have sports, but the fear is perhaps having fees would deter students from them."
As budget cuts become an increasing part of the norm for schools and communities, so does reliance on user fees to keep athletic programs afloat. Of 39 schools surveyed, 29 charge athletes to compete in school sports; two will increase their fees from last year; and 10 have no user fees. Athletic directors and school officials of those seven schools, however, admitted there is a possibility of fees in the future.
Fees ranged from $10 at Blackstone Valley Vocational Technical High School in Upton to $290 at Shrewsbury High. High schools in Maynard and Westborough opt for a one-time fee to cover any extracurricular activity during the school year. Maynard students pay $400 at the high school and $200 in middle school; Westborough relies upon its students to pay $175, with a $350 family cap, for activities.
"For the kid who plays three sports and does the school radio, one of our biggest activities with sports, it's not a bad gig," said Maynard AD Michael Graceffa. "But for the one-sport athlete, it stinks."
On Tuesday, the Framingham School Committee will vote on a fee increase. Shrewsbury's Saint John's High School, Marlborough's Assabet Valley Regional Tech, Franklin's Tri-County Regional Vo cational High, Watertown High, Waltham High, and Newton's Mount Alvernia High School do not have user fees.
Some are finding that the fees may not be enough. Soliciting advertising may be the next step. "Up until last year, we were on the total opposite side of looking at corporate sponsorships. We had a very strict antiadvertising policy, but there has to be some way to fund sports," said Eric Karjel, athletics director of Hopkinton. "If advertising a business on your fields helps build that new stadium or puts in new bleachers, then that's where we'll have to go."
"There are always ads in the yearbook, programs for the school play . . . some people think it's a bold step having signs on fields or in gyms, but it's been around since the '50s, when almost every high school scoreboard was put there by
It's a step being considered in Franklin, which now charges student athletes a user fee of $125 for each sport, up from last year's $100. The increase was included in a budget package that also eliminated about 20 staff positions in the district, according to Superintendent Wayne Ogden.
But the fees could be moderated if local or regional businesses advertised on school fields, Ogden said. So he and Franklin High School Athletic Director Brad Sidwell are working with an advertising advisory committee to explore the idea.
"Advertising is something that's so commonplace. You watch the kids walk in, and they're advertising . . . all the types of clothes," Sidwell said. "It's a far worse thing that we make them pay to play sports."
He and Ogden would like to debut the ads next year on the Franklin High School football field, which they estimate would raise about $20,000. For now, they envision banners on the 3-foot-high fence that surrounds the field, but would consider expanding to other fields, Ogden said.
Sidwell estimated the total cost of operating his athletic program in 2006-07 at $1.5 million, including coaches' salaries.
In Millis, it cost Chuck Grant $65,000 to run his program. But Grant has the same predicament as Sidwell.
"We're the third-smallest school in the state, so we might not spend as much because our student body isn't as large," he said. "Still, advertising and signage is in our future, at least from an athletic standpoint."
State Representative Peter Koutoujian, a Democrat from Waltham, believes school hours should be free from what he sees as constant marketing to youth. Koutoujian has written a bill that would ban advertising on school grounds from 30 minutes before school starts to 30 minutes after school ends. The Joint Committee on Public Health, which Koutoujian cochairs, advanced the bill in late July.
"While children may not like school, they know that it's supposed to be good for them," Koutoujian said this week. "They know they're supposed to go because society cares about them. So if there are these advertisements in school, they come with the implicit approval from society."
Koutoujian's bill originally called for a complete ban on advertising at schools. A newer version would allow advertisements at after-school activities, and would therefore permit banner ads or a company-sponsored scoreboard on an athletic field, as long as the ads weren't visible during school hours.
Some athletics directors remained hesitant about advertising, bill or no bill.
"High school sports shouldn't be commercialized any more than it is," said Holliston AD Jim Carboneau. "Right now, our committee is very closed on signage and I kind of agree with them. I'm all for donations - our scoreboard came through that. But I'm not sure about sponsorship."
Luis Macedo, athletics director of Hudson High, agreed with Carboneau, saying a dependence on corporate sponsorship could prove counter-productive. Macedo charges a $50 user fee for his athletes, including incoming eighth-graders who play against middle school teams.
Milford High AD Nick Zacchilli said sometimes corporate budgets are just as tight as those of the schools.
"I don't even know if advertising would help, or happen, because so many businesses are tapped out," said Zacchilli. "They're being approached by so many other causes, too."
Tom O'Brien hopes that's not the case with his surrounding businesses, as the second-year AD at Nashoba Valley will soon try to raise capital needed for a new track and new field-turf, a $1.4 million project.
"This district is very supportive of athletics and I'm fortunate for that," said O'Brien. "But this is a lot of money and no way can we do this in the budget. We have user fees, too, but this is something that's going to have me looking at sponsorship no matter [what] people's opinions [are] on the topic."
