MARBLEHEAD — All High School freshman athletics are back on after the School Committee voted unanimously to reinstate the nine sports that were slated to be cut.
The vote came at a School Committee meeting held Thursday. School Committee Chair Sarah Fox said that in order to reinstate freshman sports, user fees would be increased by $12 per athlete. Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations Michelle Cresta also noted that there had already been an increase in user fees from last year, meaning that the total increase would be $24 per athlete.
Fox called the user fee increase “de minimis,” and said that she would not cut sports due to a small increase in per-athlete fees.
“I’m not going to cancel sports for $12,” she said. “That would feel really inappropriate, for $12.”
The fees will make freshman sports self-funded.
Last week, Committee member Jenn Schaeffner made a motion to reinstate freshman sports, but the vote tied 2-2, meaning it did not pass.
At Thursday’s meeting, Cresta said that the user fees would bring in “a few thousand dollars,” and the rest would come from the family cap, which is the maximum amount a family can pay for their children to participate in athletics or clubs. For the 2022-23 school year, the family maximum was $622.
Schaeffner asked if it was possible to raise the individual cost even more for participation in both interscholastic sports and fine-arts productions, but Cresta said that would not make a huge difference.
“We’re already raising it from $471,” Cresta said. “It’s when you have more than one child in a program, you’re not paying much more than the family cap.”
For families who may be able to meet the individual fees but cannot pay the family maximum, Cresta said, the fees will be waived if they qualify for free or reduced lunch.
When asked what percentage of families hit the maximum, Cresta recalled that it was roughly 200 families.
Fox and Committee member Brian Ota had previously said that they prioritize education before athletics, but before the motion to reinstate freshman sports was made, Fox said that a minimal increase shouldn’t stop freshmen from participating in athletics.
“I wasn’t going to prioritize sports over education, and I stand by that. I also understand the other pieces that have been said here. At the end of the day, I’m not going to take away access from a couple hundred kids for $12,” Fox said. “I’m just not, it doesn’t make sense to me.”
During the public-comment section of the meeting, which took place before the discussion on freshman sports, Marblehead Education Association Co-Presidents Jonathan Heller and Sally Shevory presented a statement, expressing their disappointment in the fallout of the override’s failure.
“The failure of Proposition 2 ½ override on Tuesday, June 20, 2023 has cast a shadow over the future of our schools and the reputation of Marblehead for supporting high-quality public schools,” Heller said.
At the end of the statement, Heller warned that reviewing the fiscal year 2024 budget and prioritizing positions in order to see if they can potentially be saved is dangerous, and can affect future override decisions.
“By going back into the FY24 budget to look to restore the cuts that the Marblehead Public Schools and School Committee told this community would happen if the override did not pass only serves to undermine that transparency and honesty,” he said. “In fact, restoring the cuts will have a greater impact on the ability of the passing of a future Proposition 2 ½ override.”
In other news, the committee voted to have an audit done on the district’s special-education curriculum in order to review areas of improvement so that the district can reduce out-of-district placements, which have been increasing in Marblehead yearly.
