Cliff Buchan
News Editor

Itís as common as the arrival of each season in the calendar. When school budgets get tight, one of the first actions is to cut activity programs for students or increase participation fees.

Sometimes itís both.

And that is where ISD 831 could be heading again this spring as school officials go about a budget reduction model that will likely slice $1.5 million from general fund spending. As part of its proposed $2 million budget model, the district plans to use $500,000 from its undesignated general fund balance.

With three years of no increase in state aid to fund schools, districts across the state are facing budget adjustments this winter.

But in Forest Lake, achieving the $1.5 million spending reduction wonít be realized entirely from spending cuts. Parents and students will likely see an increase in the fees they pay as a major source of income to support activity programs, officials say.

But the point will soon come where fees can no longer continue to go up, said Joel Olson, activities director at Forest Lake High School.

The proposal

Under the budget reduction model approved by the school board in January, the district would reduce elementary instruction and secondary instruction by $515,000 each. A major reduction in teaching staff would be likely to achieve the $1 million budget cut.

Buildings and grounds would see a $250,000 budget reduction.

District support would take a $115,000 cut.

Athletics and co-curricular programs would be cut by $105,000 under the preliminary proposal.

Activity fees

After two prior rounds of program cuts and fee hikes, Olson says little room remains to cut remaining coaches and advisors.

ìYou might as well cut the program,î Olson said, talking about what may be coming for activity programs in ISD 831.

Raising fees is the main avenue the district may use, he said. And the proposal for 2005-2006 may include an entirely new plan in how fees are collected.

Rather than have students pay by the activity, the new system involves a fee structure built around the weeks of a season. ìThey pay be the week,î Olson says.

For example, a 10-week football season could carry a $100 fee based on a charge of $10 per week. A fee of $180 would be assessed for a student in an 18-week basketball season.

The $10 figure is purely arbitrary and used only as an example of how such a system might work, Olson said.

Other districts, such as neighboring Centennial, charge $16 to $17 a week under the same format, Olson said.

A fee system that collects $15 a week could generate in the area of $80,000 in participation fees, Olson said. He said 938 students in grades 9-12 were participants in high school league activities in the 2003-2004 school year.

In addition to the new fee system, planners will also examine an increase in the flat rate per activity that is used now, Olson said. No matter the system, a family maximum amount will be maintained, he said.

Olson said school planners who will be collecting public input and presenting recommendations to the superintendent, understand that the fees charged students will soon be at a point of diminishing return.

ìWhen are kids going to stop coming out?î Olson asked rhetorically. ìWe are at that point. Weíre going to lose kids.î

Just the facts

Olson agrees that some in the public typically look at sports and activities program as an easy place to cut. Not so, the activities director says.

For the 2003-2004 school year, the total co-curricular budget was $1,259,609, according to Larry Martini, director of business affairs.

The $1.25 million is 2.1 percent of the general fund expenditure budget of $59,789,075 for the same year, he said.

And the activities programs are generating income ó just over 20 percent of the total cost of all activities.

For the 2003-2004 school year, activity fees produced over $200,000 in revenue.

Students attending the high school shelled out $103,000 in fees.

At the junior high schools, Century students paid $54,000 in fees. Southwest students paid $51,000 fees.

Gate receipts for activities, primarily sporting activities, produced total revenue of $47,469 in 2003-2004. The dollars go into the general fund and are used to support activity programs.

Other revenue

At the same time, Olson says budget planners are also looking for other revenue streams.

Some could be found in various forms of advertising, he says.

As the plan unfolds this winter, Olson says planners will explore business and corporate sponsorship in form of banners and signs that would be placed in gymnasiums, arenas and throughout athletic fields.

Privately-financed foundations that would help kids could also be formed as another step, Olson says.

Along with new revenue, Olson says schools will face daily challenges of cutting expenditures and possibly reducing schedules to save money.

Again, he says, such actions will have diminishing returns and could do more harm than good by naturally forcing more club and private teams.

Another unfortunate aspect of the pressure on activity budgets is that coaches and advisors today feel obliged to run fund-raisers for the money they need to run their programs, Olson says. In some sense, he says, high schools are becoming more like small colleges in their bid to survive while remaining competitive.

Olson says he hopes the public understands that activities play an important part in the education of young people. The programs, he says, can help put a town on the map when successful.

And there is a natural boon to the business community when the local school hosts any kind of tournament or activity, he says.

Heís not alone

Olson is not alone is his belief that activities programs are of strong benefit to a school district.

M. Donald Thomas, the Utah-based consultant who conducted an academic audit for the district last year, did not sidestep the area of activities in his report to the school board in January.

Activities of all kinds can boost positive feelings to a school district and improve student achievement while helping prevent students from dropping from school, Thomas said.

Although the main thrust of his audit was academics, Thomas said it was alarming that student participation rates for activities are dropping on the national stage.

He conceded school officials will feel pressure at budget time to make cuts in such areas.

ìTheyíre not a waste of money,î Thomas said last month. ìThey teach other skills. Itís a positive.î

Olson, too, recognizes the importance and says school planners will do their best to protect programs and the cost students will be asked to pay in order to play.

ìWeíll do whatever we can to keep programs,î he said.

And that may mean parents and students will again be asked to dig deeper in their pockets and pay to play.

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