Prep sports, an uncertain future: Burden in the ’burbs

Lakeville used to be a rural community centered around a quaint downtown. It has become a growing Twin Cities suburb, filled with young families living on land that's been transformed from farms into subdivisions.

All is not rosy, however.

"Families are hurting," said Bob Ertl, who coaches boys' and girls' track and cross-country at Lakeville North, one of the city's two high schools. "We'd like to think that Lakeville and some of these suburbs are immune to tough economic times. But these are hard times."

The issues with school sports in Lakeville can be seen before kids ever walk through the doors at North or South. Beginning this spring, high school athletes are paying a $230 activity fee. The middle school fee is $175, and that's where things are beginning to fall apart.

"We're suffocating our middle school programs with high fees," said Jim Skelly, a parent of two high school athletes and a member of the school board.

Numbers are down at both schools

Participation numbers are down at the middle schools and high schools, and optimism is hard to find in this Dakota County suburb that splits more than 3,300 students between the two high schools. At North, the track teams normally include around 100 boys and girls. This year that number is closer to 60.

"It's a symptom of a bigger issue, which is how do we fund school programs in general?" Skelly said. "The classroom always comes first, but I think co-curriculars are always seen as part of that mix. As you go forward, I think it's always going to be the first thing on the list for cuts."

The Lakeville district has cut teachers, paraprofessionals and office staff in an effort to stem a nearly $1.1 million budget shortfall for 2008-09. It's no surprise that activities have come under the knife, as well. The high school activity fee went up $80 this spring, and another increase is expected in the spring of 2009. A scholarship fund is available to help families that cannot afford the fees, and parents are also allowed to work at sporting events as a way to cover their kids' fees.

"We made the choice to increase the fees rather than eliminate programs," superintendent Gary Amoroso said. "As I look into the crystal ball, the possibility of additional adjustments will begin to result in reduction or elimination of programs."

Programs could disappear as soon as the 2009-10 school year, with low-level programs such as ninth-grade "B" squads possibly among the first to go.

North athletic director Byron Olson said he fears that only students from affluent families will be able to participate as the fees increase, and that hooking young students into activities will become harder if they can't afford it.

"To bring in kids who have never participated, that's a tough sell," he said. "But only 2 or 2 1/2 percent of our budget goes for activities, so we think that's bang for the buck."

Some are concerned that students will drift toward club sports and similar activities not tied to schools.

"People have other options for those programs," Skelly said. "But they don't pick up at 2:30 in the afternoon and continue until 5, which is kind of the key reason a school district would want to have programs, to keep students occupied in a positive activity after school."

Expensive turf field controversial

The school board has come under criticism for spending more than $1 million for artificial turf on the football/soccer/lacrosse field at North, but the district forecasts that turf will be cheaper than maintaining grass over time, and Amoroso said that money could not have been used to stop the budgetary bleeding.

"Those are not general-fund dollars," he said. "Those dollars are proceeds from a 2002 bond election, and those dollars must be used for bricks-and-mortar-type projects. By statute they cannot be used for salaries, transportation, materials, supplies, those types of things."

According to Amoroso, approximately 80 percent of the school's funding comes from the state, 15 to 16 percent comes from local levies, and most of the rest from federal funds or grants. But since state funding can be inconsistent, he said it's hard for schools to make long-term budget plans.

"One of the things that we'd like to see, and we've talked to our legislators about, is some type of consistent level of funding," he said. "So as we are looking out three years, four years, five years, we have a good sense of what that 80-plus-percent looks like, and that helps us be better planners. That's missing right now, and it's creating havoc not only in our school system, but I think in school systems throughout the state of Minnesota."

In the meantime, fees are climbing and cutbacks are likely to continue.

"I've had residents say to me, 'If you want to get people's attention, cut football,'" Skelly said. "Normally what you do is you start nipping away. It's kind of like boiling the frog in the water instead of throwing him into the boiling pot. Maybe you don't notice it over the years."