Who's going to pay?

The cuts have been proposed and the ax is set to drop.

If the Matanuska Susitna School district does slice right through its current budget and scrape away the resources necessary to fund activities within our local schools, who is going to pick up the pieces?

Who is going to pick up the check?

Of its $138 million budget, the school board plans to trim virtually all of the $1.3 million currently allotted to fund the school's activities.

The board has proposed to cut the money used to pay coaches at the elementary and middle school levels, and those who coach C-teams at the high school level. The activities director positions at the four local high schools are on the chopping block, a reduction that is equivalent to the salaries of four tenured teachers.

And funding for all travel costs related to school activities could be gone, a savings to the district of approximately $200,000-$300,000.

Transportation of students involved in activities and coaches to mentor those in the activities are necessary for the survival of the activities, but as of now it is unknown where the funds will come from to cover the additional costs.

Wasilla High School activities director Doug Bean estimates that the already taxed booster clubs supply 75-to-80-percent of the funds necessary to keep each activity afloat. Bean said currently the district only pays for transportation and a portion of the coaches' stipends, and the proposed cuts would mean all of the financial responsibility of managing the activities' budgets would fall back onto the school and the booster clubs.

If the cuts are put into effect, the district will allow schools to raise their activities fees from $75 to $125. Activities fees at the elementary and middle schools levels could be nearly doubled, from $40 to $75. High schools could also be allowed to charge a $50 parking fee. Money raised would go into the respective school's general activities budget.

But the remainder of the funds necessary may have to come from the booster club. With the addition of the very large possible cuts to pay for the student-athletes travel, local booster club officials are more than skeptic.

"There is no way we can," said Terri Trudeau, a member of both the Wasilla football and wrestling booster clubs. "I honestly can't see us being able to accommodate the kids' travel costs."

Trudeau said the Wasilla wrestling booster club raises about $3,000 per year. That money goes toward coaches stipends, equipment and accommodations while on the road. The money is just enough to cover the bare necessities. In late January it cost more than $7,000 to send the Wasilla wrestling team to Kodiak to compete in the Region III championship tournament. That cost is more than double what the booster club was able to earn this year.

According to Palmer High School basketball booster club president Doug Prins, $1,000 was spent for the boys' basketball team to stay in hotels during their three-game road trip in Fairbanks last week. If the booster club was responsible for travel costs as well, the cost of that one road trip would double.

According to local schools, it costs about $1,200 to send an average-sized squad to and from Fairbanks via bus.

Prins added one of the Palmer hoops booster club's biggest money makers is the souvenir game program. Through sales of the program and advertisements in the program, the Palmer hoops yearbook earns about $2,500 per year.

"That would be two road trips," Prins said.

Both booster club executives said raising money in the Valley for activities is harder and harder each year.

"You walk into a business and they just cringe," Trudeau said. "They're overwhelmed. The community is so drained from all the fund raisers."

The businesses in the local community have been an invaluable financial resource for athletics, but with four state funded high schools, a handful of middle schools and several elementary schools in the Valley, each with dozens of needy athletic programs, it will not be long before the resources are exhausted.

"Keep tapping into the well, the well will run dry," Prins said.

Each booster club for each sport has its own money making ideas. Most host raffles, many host silent auctions and virtually every team has a steak or spaghetti feed at one time or another.

Trudeau said the problem with fund raising projects such as spaghetti feeds is the responsibility falls back onto the parents.

"The parents end up being the ones who buy the tickets," Trudeau said. "It's a drain on the parents, a drain on the families."

She said it is also a drain on the student-athletes who often are hitting the pavement, knocking on doors, doing anything they can to help fund their program.

"These poor kids have been fund-raised to death," Trudeau said. "Every year since elementary school they have been fund raising, trying to make up the thousands of dollars their programs need. They get absolutely burned out asking the families for money, asking their friends for money."

She added, inevitably it is the parents who will be paying for everything in the long run.

"I'm flabbergasted," Trudeau said. "They hit sports because they know the parents aren't going to let that happen. The parents will have to pay it all themselves."

It is also becoming harder to keep parents involved in booster clubs, according to Trudeau, and the increased financial responsibility could increase that problem

"It's very difficult just to get parents to come out and help," Trudeau said. "The sad part, you don't even see new parents coming in. They pick one sport or both parents work. We work too, but we still find the time someone has to find the time."

Prins said members of his booster club have put in as many as 30-40 hours per week during the season.

"We're all volunteer parents, no one gets paid," Prins said.

Another potential problem seen is the added responsibility on a team of volunteers that are not permanent. In many cases booster club members move on once their child either graduates or is done with the sport. The added financial responsibility will call for a greater learning curve in the position.

"That is a concern," Prins said. "I am in my third year and finally have a grip on things."