With poll: Saline school board boosts pay-to-play fees for 2010-2011

Salaries for 2009-2010 total $820,000. Additional costs include transportation, the hiring of officials, tournament entry fees, maintenance of facilities and the repair of equipment such as football helmets.

Saline's Justin Owen, right, battles for control of the puck with Trenton's Mike Lesko during a recent game. Saline athletes will soon be paying more to play.

The pay-to-play fees cover $150,000 of this year’s $994,000 athletic budget. White called the increase “the most effective and cleanest way to generate revenue.”

Other revenue sources include $140,000 in gate admission to events and $704,000 from the district’s general fund. White said the latter amount comes to 1.25 percent of the fund.

“That’s the best bang for our buck this district is getting,” he told the board and several dozen members of the public Tuesday.

The district supports 22 high school sports programs and seven in middle school. No increase of the $125 fee for middle-school athletes was proposed. White said kids of that age are at a “stage of exploration” and shouldn’t be discouraged.

The fee allows an athlete to play more than one sport. It also includes a pass that lets a student attend any sporting contest within the district.

“I want our athletes in a healthy place, and that’s at our events, cheering on their fellow athletes,” White said.

A cap of $500 in pay-to-play fees remains in effect for families with more than one athlete.

Even with an overall drop in district enrollment, about 400 more students participate in sports programs than at the beginning of the pay-to-play era, which is now in its fourth year.

White said the latest in multi-phase stadium and locker room improvements is paid for by a $200,000 grant from CARES. The program serves the needs of cultural arts, recreation, enrichment and seniors within the district and comes from a special millage approved in 2009.

“We are becoming more and more creative in funding,” he said.

Board president David Friese asked White why it’s not practical to raise more gate revenues by rescinding the free admission that’s extended to senior citizens. After all, said Friese - who noted he will soon observe his 67th birthday - most seniors are financially better off than the families of students.

White replied it’s a policy of the Southeastern Conference to offer free admission to seniors.

After the meeting, Friese said, “People of my generation have somewhat failed the young people of today by not providing adequate funding for athletics and for schools as a whole.”

Ronald Ahrens is a freelance writer for AnnArbor.com. Reach the news desk at news@annarbor.com or 734-623-2530.