Chicago Sun Times - It's crunch time for sports funding

By Taylor Bell

March 13, 2010 - While most suburban school districts and their extensive sports programs were feeling the economic squeeze in the last few months, the Chicago Public Schools waited for the hammer to fall. And waited. And waited.

It fell earlier this week, with a loud thud.

Calvin Davis, director of the Public League’s sports administration, said the sophomore levels of all spring sports have been cut for the immediate future with the prospect that the cuts will continue in the fall and winter sports during the 2010-11 school year.

Unable to secure necessary funding from the state, CPS had to make drastic cuts across the board. The sports program was ordered to trim $500,000. Cutting the sophomore levels in all spring sports will impact 6,000 students and force CPS to drop 300 coaches.

Other school districts are feeling the pinch, too.

Maine Township’s three high schools are cutting 75 teachers, including four head coaches at East, while a new fieldhouse on the West campus and a new fitness/weight center, new gymnasium and a newly resurfaced track at South have been put on hold. And that’s only the beginning.

‘‘This is a cloud hanging over our heads,’’ said Maine South athletic director Steve Adams. ‘‘We need more help than ever. We have survived Year 1, but there are projected deficits for the next four years. More cuts are coming.’’

Voters in New Trier’s district overwhelmingly rejected a $174 million referendum for what was described as ‘‘significant construction’’ on the East and West campuses, including a new gym and an addition to the fieldhouse.

Lincoln-Way’s ever-expanding district — a fifth high school is in the works — also is facing a financial crisis. Last year, 48 paid coaching positions were trimmed. More cutbacks are anticipated. East’s football team has 10 paid coaches and 15 volunteers.

The four schools in the Glenbard district have been hard hit, too. Funding from the state was an all-time low this year. To compensate, each school was forced to jettison a couple of coaches. There is a fear that other projects, like new turf on a soccer/lacrosse field at West, might be in danger.

At Evanston, plans to build new locker rooms and a fieldhouse for indoor track and tennis were placed on the back burner. Instead of receiving the usual $2 million in funds to support the sports program, the school got only $50,000. All budgets for supplies have been frozen.

And Elgin, one of five schools in the state’s second-largest school district, has drained its swimming pool and canceled all Saturday night events. Coaching positions in softball and baseball have been cut from five to three. To avoid overtime for custodians, some events are scheduled for late mornings so students are out of the building by 3 p.m.

Highland Park athletic director Bobbie Monroe reported a loss of $25,000 in coaching stipends and three coaches. The school also co-ops with Deerfield in boys water polo. No further reductions going into next year are anticipated.

Facing tough economic times, high schools throughout the Chicago area are attempting to cope with the challenges of trimming staff, reducing budgets, cutting levels of sports and, in some cases, whole programs.

But a survey of more than 50 schools reveals that the economic blight isn’t as serious as you might suspect. In fact, there are schools that insist they never had it so good, that what happened on Wall Street hasn’t had a negative impact on Main Street in Hinsdale or South Holland or Aurora or Flossmoor or Crete-Monee.

Even so, there is a fear of what might happen in the near future.

‘‘We are fortunate, no cutbacks,’’ Hinsdale Central athletic director Paul Moretta said. ‘‘Our district did well to plan for the downturn in the economy, a lot of good fiscal responsibility.

‘‘But budgets are coming up. The ax could fall in the next few months. We have seen incidents where kids need more help with additional equipment and can’t afford it themselves. And our support clubs aren’t getting as much money as before from families.’’

District 205, which includes Thornton, Thornridge and Thornwood, suffered severe cutbacks from 2002 to 2007 — coaching stipends, freshman levels, ‘‘B’’ teams in football and boys basketball, more than a dozen assistant coaches — but Thornwood athletic director Gary Lagesse said the programs now are at full funding, new facilities have been added and coaching stipends have been reinstated.

‘‘Give a lot of credit to [district superintendent] Kamala Buckner,’’ Lagesse said. ‘‘At one time, we were $100 million in debt. Now we’re close to being solvent. She had a vision and led us through the crisis.’’

District 214, the state’s third-largest district with six high schools, seems to be thriving, too. But Prospect athletic director Tom Martindale admits that he isn’t so optimistic about the future.

‘‘The economy will affect us more in the next couple of years,’’ Martindale said. ‘‘Once the tax assessments come out, we’ll find out the volume of money is less coming into our school district, and decisions must be made.

‘‘At this point, we have had no cutbacks in coaches or levels. We’re waiting for the ‘if’ scenario.’’

But ‘‘if’’ has already happened at Maine South, East and West, at Elgin, Bartlett, Streamwood, Larkin and South Elgin, at Glenbard West, East, South and North, at Lincoln-Way Central, East, North and West, at St. Charles East and North, at New Trier, Evanston, Deerfield, Highland Park, Lake Zurich and elsewhere.

Lane Tech athletic director Rich Rio said he ‘‘would be pleased but very surprised if all levels of sports are funded in September.’’

He fears he might have to cut freshman football or baseball and water polo, lacrosse and 16-inch softball.

‘‘September will be difficult in all school districts,’’ Rio said.