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After hearing from parents overwhelmed by the prospect of a steep increase in Winchester High School athletic fees, the School Committee budget subcommittee has come up with a plan B — and a reassessed plan A.
The budget subcommittee went back and forth between two different options, before deciding to bring both back to the full School Committee for debate on June 29.
“Rather than us trying to divine what the other three committee members may feel, I think we should just sort of say, ‘Here’s approach A, here’s approach B’ and then we discuss it from there,” said School Committee Chair Tim Matthews, who along with School Committee member Stefanie Mnayarji, serves on the budget subcommittee.
Andrew Marron, director of Finance and Operations, presented the subcommittee with a new plan that would increase athletic fees for all sports across the board to $675 per participant and eliminate the facilities fees that caused the price to play for some athletes to skyrocket.
His plan would also reinstate the family cap at either $2,700 for four participants or $3,375 for five participants. He also proposed the committee rewrite the policies and procedures for financial aid and evaluate sports vs. clubs.
Option B is the initial proposal floated by the School Committee: $600 per sport with a tiered facility fee for hockey, swimming, tennis and golf, but with a family cap added in.
Mnayarji said she thought spreading the facilities fee around with a $675 flat fee would work as a bridge for a year while a working committee took a deeper dive into the fee schedule, including looking at the actual costs for running various sports programs.
She also liked the idea of reinstating the family cap, “because we do have some families with as many as four children at the high school, and we want to be able to provide opportunities for them,” she said.
Matthews worried because some sports had a lower threshold for entry, such as a no-cut sport vs. one where athletes have to try out to make the team, a flat fee might deter some kids from trying a new sport or branching out and adding a second or third sport to their high school experience.
Superintendent Dr. Frank Hackett said they had to figure out a recommendation from the subcommittee to be considered by the School Committee and voted on the 29th because if they don’t, they will have to open registration for fall sports at the current rates.
“Because we have to get out there with this,” he said. “We’re going to be [voting] as it is on the 29th, and that following weekend is the Fourth of July.”
Mnayarji wondered if Matthews’ plan to use the initial model of $600 per sport with tiered facilities fees, but reintroducing the family cap would cover the $246,000 deficit in the athletic fee account.
Hackett said that’s tough to answer because it would be trying to make guesses about what consumer behavior might look like after changes are made.
“I think we just need to know we’re in some range of possibility of addressing the deficit. I think it’s the best we can do,” Hackett said.
After the vote
Matthews reiterated that whichever way the committee votes, Option A or Option B, it is only a bridge solution for this year. Everyone at the subcommittee meeting agreed that a working group needs to take a more holistic look at fees for the future.
Hackett said he believes transportation, basic supplies and equipment should all be in the budget and it would be a good exercise to determine those costs and what the budget impact would be. His concern, however, is things could become cost prohibitive.
“I mean at some point we have to make a decision, do you run an athletic program that’s comprehensive with all kinds of different activities and options for kids to participate in, or do you start to limit what you do and what you offer,” he said. “I just want to make sure we’re starting to think about and talk about what this looks like beyond next year.”
Chris Stevens is an award-winning journalist who has spent 25 years chasing, editing and photographing stories on the North Shore. She is the co-founder and managing editor of Gotta Know Medford.
