MONROE – Parents will have to put down some green for their teen to wear orange and black on the play field next fall.
The Monroe School Board this week approved a sports participation fee, making Monroe the sixth of Snohomish County’s 13 school districts to require student athletes to pay to play.
It’s one of several new or higher fees that are meant to help offset an estimated $1 million shortfall in the 2007-08 budget.
“What we heard (from parents) as a general response was, ‘Better that you have the fees than we lose the programs,’” Superintendent Ken Hoover said.
Other new fees charge for extra graduation tickets and for participation in Marine Corps Junior ROTC. Meanwhile, fees for student parking, summer school tuition, traffic safety courses, class materials and other services are going up.
In all, district staff expect a $400,000 boost because of the added revenue.
The new sports fees make up $30,000 of that estimate.
The base fees will be $40 per sport at Monroe High School and $20 per sport at the three middle schools.
Athletes will be charged for only the first two sports they participate in. There also are some sibling discounts and caps on how much a single family would pay ($140 for high school sports; $70 for middle school). Like others, the district will waive fees for families who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.
Some parents worry fewer students will participate in sports.
“You know, we pay for the ASB card, which is supposed to cover part of that cost. So it’s sort of double-dipping,” said Laura Bartley, a parent of three with another child on the way. “I think it’s going to hurt a lot of families that have multiple children playing sports.”
Two of Bartley’s children will likely be involved in two sports each next year across middle school and high school, totaling $120 in sports fees. Add the costs of physicals, uniforms, tickets and other expenses, and the price tag so far rings in at about $300.
“It’s going to be a cost we’ll definitely have to budget for,” Bartley said.
More school districts have started charging sports fees to help keep their own budgets in the black.
The Arlington School District was the last to add fees, which took effect this school year. They are $40 per high school sport and $25 per middle school sport.
Each of the three school districts that surround Monroe – Sultan; Snohomish; and Northshore, based in Bothell – charge sports fees. They range from $25 per high school sport in Sultan to $75 per high school sport in Snohomish.
The idea to add a sports fee in Monroe came during the district’s community budget process, when volunteers looked at different parts of the budget for cuts.
The group examining the athletics budget did not propose fees, something suggested by a handful of participants in other areas.
“It was not a decision taken lightly. We know there are families in our district of all different economics,” said Rosemary O’Neil, a district spokeswoman.
The sports fee isn’t the only new charge.
A $100 fee will help save the Marine Corps Junior ROTC program, in which 19 Monroe High students now participate. The program is held at Snohomish High School, which charges Monroe $932 per student participant.
The ROTC program had been suggested as one of about 30 “first choice” cuts in the community budget process. A parent booster group appealed to the school board, armed with a petition and testimonies by uniformed teens.
Vance Robinson, whose freshman son, Randall, is in the program, said he’s thankful board members listened.
“As far as the $100, I’m not real happy, but definitely more happy that it’s going to stay,” Robinson said.
Other fees are not new but going up next fall.
Among them is the student parking fee at Monroe High. The fee will double to $40. Previously that revenue went to the ASB fund but will instead go to the district’s general fund.
“We’re all kind of bitter about it,” said ASB President Darryl Jacobsen, 18. “Our parking lot is so full that students park on the street. So I don’t have the exact numbers, but it’s going to be quite a bit” of money lost.
Hoover said the ASB currently profits as much as $3,000 from the fees. The fees bring in $10,000 in revenue, but the group pays back from $7,000 to $8,000 of that to the district for parking lot maintenance and supervision.
“They’re losing a little bit. But it was like a subsidy the district was giving the ASB, because they didn’t have to do any of the work,” the superintendent said. “I’m not exactly sure why it was in ASB in the first place.”
Reporter Melissa Slager: 425-339-3465 or mslager@heraldnet.com.
Shown are some of the new or increasing fees in the Monroe School District for 2007-08. Figures are base rates.
New feeOld fee
Sports participation$40 per sport (HS)None
$20 per sport (MS)None
Junior ROTC$100None
Student parking$ 40$20
Summer school$150 per class (MS)$125 per class
$175 per credit (HS)$150 per credit
Traffic safety$375$325
Graduation tickets4 free; then $8None
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