Paying more to play

Sports fees reach new heights at a dozen area high schools

Mark and Monica Juitt's son and daughter both go to Ashland High School, and both play sports. Between them, Nina and Tim Juitt will participate on five teams this year.

Last year, their activities would have cost the family $650 in sports fees. But this year, the school district has raised the fees and eliminated a cap on how much a family has to pay, and the Juitts are facing a bill for $1,353.

"It's a lot of money," said Monica Juitt. To offset the cost, she will not pay the bus fee, about $280 per student, and will instead drive her children to school, she said.

And whom can she blame for this sharp increase, one more pain in the wallet, as the price of food, gas, and just about everything else seems to be skyrocketing?

Well, for one, her husband. Mark Juitt voted for the increase in his role as a member of the Ashland School Committee. "It's very unfortunate. It's not what we wanted to do," he said, adding that if a proposed property-tax increase had passed, the fees would not have gone up as much. "We have to put the money into the scholastics first," he said.

The Juitts, like a lot of parents and coaches and officials in communities across the region, are resigned to the growing reality that to maintain high school sports programs, student-athletes will have to pay to play. Of 35 high schools in area communities, 28 levy athletic fees, and 12 are increasing their fees for the upcoming school year.

As for the value of sports, Ted Dalicandro, the head football coach at Newton South High School, said athletics are a vital part of education because they teach youths to support teammates even when things aren't going well, and to work with others toward a common goal.

"I think there are lessons learned on the field that just can't be taught in the classroom," he said.

At both Newton North and Newton South high schools, the fee is going from $180 to $210 per sport, with an annual family cap of $630.

Dalicandro is a little concerned, he said, that students could end up feeling obliged to play fewer sports, and be less willing to experiment with a new activity, in order to save money.

"I think it will add a second thought to whether a parent wants to pay $200 for their son or daughter to play a sport," said Dalicandro, who is also the school's assistant athletic director. "It adds a question mark to it. Not sure it will reduce the number of kids. It may."

So far, the numbers don't seem to bear out his concern, according to Paul Wetzel, spokesman for the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association, a nonprofit organization that oversees the state's high school sports programs.

The number of schools using athletic fees, he said, "has increased fairly dramatically over the past six to seven years, and participation has increased."

Both the number of participating students and the variety of sports offered are on the rise, he said.

Although the MIAA doesn't track athletic fees, Wetzel said, there is good anecdotal evidence that fees are rising in schools statewide.

Adding to the other financial pressures facing schools, higher gas prices, he said, are likely contributing to the trend, because teams have to transport athletes to competitions.

Wetzel said his organization doesn't wade into the debate over whether the fees are fair, but he did point out that user fees have become common for community services, from senior citizen transportation to library activities.

Athletic fees in area communities range from a low of $30 for one sport at Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School in Upton to a high of $400 at Maynard High School.

But those numbers don't tell the whole story, since 22 of the 28 schools charging the annual fees either offer a discount for multiple siblings or have set a cap on how much one family must pay.

At Maynard High, $400 allows a student to play as many sports and participate in as many extracurricular activities as they want, and the fee is $200 for any siblings at the school. Westborough High has the lowest cap in the area, at $175 annually.

Of those schools without caps, Ashland and Lincoln-Sudbury Regional are at the high end. Lincoln-Sudbury will charge $300 per sport starting in the fall, and Ashland will charge from $259 to $335, depending on the sport.

Some communities allow families to apply for hardship waivers if they are having a hard time financially.

Jonathan Frieze, the incoming president of the Newton South Booster Club, said athletics should be considered part of a well-rounded education. And while the extra money raised through fees seems like a drop in the overall school budget, he said, it can be really hard on family budgets.

As far as parents are concerned, "they'll do their best to come up with the money," said Frieze, but "this should be part of the school's mission, especially in this day and age, when we're seeing the uptick in obesity and inactivity in our kids."

Paul LeBel, president of the Millis Booster Club, said his daughter Jessica, an incoming senior, will still play all three of her sports despite the $660 total price tag.

"She's pretty athletic, and it's what she would like to do," he said. "She wants to play college sports. . . . We'll work it through and try to make ends meet."

LeBel said he predicts it will be the same all over town. No one likes to pay athletic fees, but he thinks parents will accept them.

"Millis is pretty resilient," he said. "As a whole, I think the kids will be more selective in their choices, but kids here are very athletic. Being a small school, you have a core group of kids that go from one sport to another to another."

Monica Juitt said it's far better to increase fees than it is to start eliminating some sports. She said she read a recent study that highlighted the problems that teens can face with drinking, drugs, and depression. Athletics can help students sidestep such dangers, she said.

"Whatever you can do to keep them healthy and busy," she said, "is worth the money."

Lisa Kocian can be reached at 508-820-4231 or lkocian@globe.com.