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E.P. offsets cuts with 'pay-to-play' fee By DON HUNT Mail Tribune Students at Eagle Point High School will be required to pay $100 to play sports and other extracurricular activities during the 2002-03 school year in the wake of the state budget crisis. Other schools in the Rogue Valley are waiting to see whether voters pass Measure 13, a legislature referendum that will ask voters to shift $220 million from the Education Endowment Fund into the general fund to help bail out schools. The vote is set for May 21. Eagle Point Athletic Director Bob Bergen said Wednesday that even if schools get the extra money, the play-to pay fee is still needed in his district. Students will pay the $100 fee regardless of how many activities they participate in, Bergen said. Eagle Point faces a $1.3 million shortfall from its $25 million budget for the next school year. "We're facing cuts in athletics," Bergen said. "We don't know what amount or what's going to get cut, but we know athletics is going to take a hit. "It's kind of discouraging. We've got a lot of lower-income people in our district." Bergen said he didn't know if certain students would be exempt from the fee but added that "somehow, some way we've got to get every kid involved who wants to be involved." Eagle Point last had a pay-to-play policy in 1985, Bergen said. Medford School District Athletic Director Bruce Howell doesn't expect the athletes at North and South Medford high schools to pony up extra money to play sports, but if Measure 13 fails and the state legislature doesn't come up with other methods of raising revenue then the issue might have to be visited, he said. Medford has an advantage over other local schools in that it brings in a healthy amount of revenue from its football games - $90,000 to $100,000 per season. The other sports that charge admission put another $50,000 or so to the coffers. But that revenue doesn't match the costs of travel, equipment, officials and coaching salaries, Howell said. "We're going to work our way through this," he said. "We've worked too long and too hard not to provide quality programs for our kids." Crater High administrators are awaiting the outcome of Measure 13 to make decisions on their athletic budget. Ashland High is facing stern cuts in its overall budget, but athletics and other extracurricular activities are exempt because of a special levy the city passed to fund them. The school is in the second year of a three-year levy. However, the school expects to lose a few of its coaches because they're being laid off as teachers, Ashland Athletic Director Jim Nagel said. Ashland must trim nearly 10 percent of its $20.5 million budget. Reach reporter Don Hunt at 776-4469, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.