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Posted on Mon, Aug. 04, 2008

PARENTS, FEES AND FUND-RAISERS KEEP SCHOOL ACTIVITIES ALIVE

By Sarah Vos and Jennifer Smith

SVOS@HERALD-LEADER.COM

Editor's note: This story was published in the Lexington Herald-Leader on Dec. 9, 2005.

In Fayette County, activities like football depend on fund-raising and money from parents, creating vast differences in what's available for extracurricular activities at the five public high schools. Teams at Bryan Station usually have less to spend than teams at other schools. The cramped locker room for its football team, above, sits in the belly of the stadium and smells of stale sweat and mildew. Even two small football players can barely maneuver in the space between lockers. Paint peels off of the walls. Pushed into one corner is old weight equipment.

Last year, parents of Fayette County high school students raised more than $2.8 million so their kids could participate in activities such as baseball, cheerleading and band. At least $630,000 of that came directly from parents' pockets.

Parents and students work year-round at bingo parlors, concession stands, car washes and sales events to raise that money.

That support might illustrate parents' dedication to their children, but it creates a system in which playing on teams in public schools is essentially a private enterprise -- and not everyone gets to participate.

Tiffany Collins, 15, wanted to join the color guard at Henry Clay High School.

But when her father, Kevin Collins, showed up for a booster meeting last year, he was shocked to learn what it would cost: $470 in fees and $1,300 in fund-raising.

"That first night they wanted several hundred dollars, just as a commitment," he said. "There was no way that we were going to be able to do this."

Across the country, school districts are looking for ways to pay for sports and extracurricular activities without spending tax dollars needed for academics. But they also want students to benefit from being part of a team, staying active and learning to compete.

Many turn to booster clubs and participation fees to supplement budgets.

But Fayette County requires more than just supplemental help. The district is unusual in that it relies on parents and booster clubs to pay for everything except the utilities and the head coaches' salaries.

For more than four months, the Lexington Herald-Leader examined the financial records of 50 groups, including band and nine sports (see charts) at Fayette County's five public high schools and talked to more than 100 coaches, parents and students about the system.

The investigation showed that:

* Boys' teams often have more money than girls' teams. One national expert on Title IX, the federal law that requires parity in school sports, said that the inequity could be a direct violation of the law.

* Financial requirements prevent some students from participating.

* There is little oversight of the money raised and how it is spent.

* Vast inequities exist between schools because some booster clubs raise enough money to provide extras, while others struggle to provide the basics.

* Coaches say they spend too much time worrying about money and not enough time helping students improve their skills.

Fayette County Schools Superintendent Stu Silberman says the district doesn't expect the booster clubs to pay for anything. But he acknowledges that the groups pay for more than the district would.

"It's a situation where they come forward to help us have a better-quality program than we can afford," he said.

Coaches and parents say the county wouldn't have sports and band programs at all without booster clubs.

The Bryan Station High School baseball boosters, for example, paid for the team's field house, field lights, scoreboard and field maintenance. The parent group, which raised more than $33,000 last year, also pays for assistant coaches and umpires, leaving only the head coach's salary to be paid by the school district.

No students are prevented from participating in sports or other activities because they can't raise money, parents and school officials say.

But every year, dozens of students at each high school say exactly the opposite on Kentucky High School Athletic Association surveys: They do not participate in sports because of the cost.

It's easy to find such students.

Natasha King, a Tates Creek senior, wanted to play softball last spring and worked out with the team. But she quit when she found out she needed to raise as much as $800.

"It was just too much," King said. She said she talked about the cost with her mother. "She was like, 'You can play softball in the back yard.'"

Under Kentucky law, students can't be prevented from getting an education based on their ability to pay. And fund-raising can't be required for any class.

Since sports take place outside the classroom, students may be asked to pay fees and fund-raise. Even with band, which is both a class and an extracurricular activity, students may be pressured to raise money as long as they aren't penalized if they don't meet the financial goals, said Kevin Noland, an attorney for the state Department of Education.

At times, the financial requirements seem all but mandatory.

"If the parents are refusing to do something," said Allison Denton, the girls' basketball coach at Lafayette, "I look at the girl and say, 'You know what, you're not getting your sweat pants, you're not getting your travel suit, you're not getting your uniform until you do this, this and this.'

"It's part of being on the team," she said.

The Fayette County school district has been reluctant to impose rules for booster clubs, in part because the groups are separate organizations that are incorporated as non-profits.

Other Kentucky school districts put limits on booster clubs. Ashland public schools, for example, prevent booster groups there from raising money with bingo.

In Fayette County, booster groups decide, in conjunction with coaches and band directors, what equipment they need and what trips they want to take. Then, they calculate how much money they need. Often, to calculate the amount each student must raise, the total budget is simply divided by the number of students participating.

Not all booster clubs work the same way. Some groups have fees. Others set fund-raising requirements. Some allow parents to buy their way out of fund-raising. Others don't.

When the Herald-Leader made an open-records request in the spring for five years of booster club budgets, the district said it did not routinely collect those numbers. However, district policy requires that those numbers be compiled so that schools can accurately report spending on boys' and girls' sports to the state's high school athletic association.

After the newspaper's request, the district changed the policy. Booster club financial reports now go directly to Silberman.

In some cases, the documents given to the newspaper were incomplete. None showed how much money booster groups asked individual students to contribute or raise, or how often those requirements were waived.

Money contributed directly by parents was not always recorded as such. The Lafayette baseball boosters, for example, characterized the $4,000 parents contributed to buy their way out of working bingo as "option 2 bingo."

Not every team sets fees or fund-raising goals. The Lafayette football team has had neither, and Coach Mike Harmon opposes the idea every time it comes up. He doesn't want to prevent students from playing, and he doesn't think it's right.

"Everybody's situation is different," Harmon said. "Some people can obviously do more than others."

The financial requirements are hardest on families who don't have a lot of money yet don't qualify for free or reduced lunch, said Chuck Smith, director of the Lafayette band.

Last year, Lafayette band students paid $1,100 in fees in addition to raising $550. For middle-class families, Smith tries to work out payment plans.

Tiffany Collins talked to Henry Clay's band director to figure out a way to participate despite the fees.

Collins' family doesn't qualify for free and reduced lunch. The $470 was too much money just to pay, said Kevin Collins, and they didn't have the time to fund-raise. Collins, who works for an engineering firm, is often out of town. His wife, Ella, stays home. They have another daughter, Brittany, who is 13.

"We're running around enough as it is," he said.