Marblehead school board ponders coaches’ jobs vs. higher user fees

MARBLEHEAD – Caught between a budget deficit rock and a user fee hard place, the School Committee will discuss a possible hike in school user fees to cover the cost of restoring coaches for gymnastics and junior varsity golf at Marblehead High.Parents and students attended the June 3 committee meeting to protest the axing of those two positions, costing an estimated $6,000, from the Fiscal 2011 budget. Committee Chairman Patricia Blackmer promised to discuss restoring them at the committee’s summer retreat, scheduled for Thursday at 8:30 a.m. at the Marblehead Veterans Middle School.A memo Blackmer sent to committee members in advance of the retreat listed some possible fee increases that could cover the restoration of the coaches.”I’m not recommending this, I just think it’s helpful if people have some numbers in front of them,” she said. “What I wrote was, if we adjusted the fee for an individual student athlete from $340 to $375, that would raise the family cap for two students from $480 to $750 – and I told the committee, ‘Let’s talk about adjusting the cap to somewhere between $480 and $550.””I was making a comparison,” she said.Normally used to discuss the superintendent’s and committees’ vision for the schools, this year’s retreat will begin with a lengthy business session and Blackmer said she may have to schedule a second meeting to complete the agenda.”We tabled the user fee discussion until the retreat so we could take a look at the close-out report on the Fiscal 2010 budget,” Blackmer said. That report will be given by Acting School Business Manager George Gearhart.During the June 3 meeting Marblehead High student Aaron Rothbard told the School Committee JV golf was the only fall sport he and his friends have right now and it helped him make the transition from the Marblehead Veterans Middle School to Marblehead High. Rothbard was one of several speakers, all urging to committee to reinstate the coaching positions.