Concerned parents gathered at weekly meetings in October and November at the Arlington Sons of Italy Lodge to discuss their concern over rising costs of sports. That escalated into their overwhelming attendance at recent School Committee meetings with questions and repeated demands to reinstate a cap on sports fees.

"It's dehumanizing to have to tell your kid that they can't play," parent representative Karen DeAlmeida said at the last school committee meeting. "I'm not going to wait for March for an answer [about the family cap] and no one behind me is, either."

Concerned parent Stephen Harrington took a fine-tooth comb to Powers and Sullivan's recent audit of the school department's budget and presented his findings at the last School Committee meeting. After locating several areas where money generated through athletics was applied to the school department's general budget rather than to sports, Harrington proposed several solutions to help defray costs for parents. Two potential methods included moving $88,000 from field user fees and money from ticket sales to the athletic budget.

 The School Committee responded by freezing fees right before the winter sports tryouts began November 29. Chief Financial Officer Diane Johnson said she would have to research the implications and feasibility of Harrington's suggestions.

"It's not that we're unsympathetic to a family cap," Superintendent Kathleen Bodie said after the last meeting. "We have to take time to see the projections for the facilities and for athlete participation. We have to be fiscally conservative."

This parent, like many others, has two children attending Arlington High School and both play sports, although this year one child opted to not to participate in winter track. Although her child's decision was not solely based on the increased fees, she said the family has questioned the impact the fees would have on the track team this season. 

AHS Track Coach John Hanley reported the high fees are hurting his program. He said this season only 28 boys tried out, compared to last years 65 participants. For the girls squad, participation decreased from approximately 80 last winter, to around 35 this year.

"The big question now is after Tuesday night are the kids that have been here so far going to stick it out," Hanley said.

Parents are also questioning why the school is not putting more effort in collecting fees related to other extracurricular groups and clubs, such as band or art. Some say that the school administration has stopped collecting fees for those groups because it became too difficult.

Pending School Committee approval, softball and hockey coach Robert Bartholomew will become a member of the newly formed Athletic Advisory Committee. He said that the committee aims to address those issues specifically in its inaugural meeting this Wednesday.

"I would like to see any student athlete that plays three sports have the third sport free because it encourages sports," Bartholomew said. "Also on our agenda is ensuring that extra circular activities outside of athletics are paying a user fee of at least $100 and that the fee is being collected."  

According to Bartholomew, the committee is also seeking to reduce sports fees across the board.  "We are looking for a cap on user fees [and] a reduction in the amount of fees because they went up 165 percent from last year," he said.

Several coaches commended Nancy Brennan, secretary to Athletic Director Ted Devers, for collecting sports fees in an efficient and timely manner. Devers could not be reached for comment on the effect of increased user fees on athletic participation at the high school. However, Brennan said that Devers and the department are in the process of collecting data to determine that.

Chief Financial Officer Diane Johnson said "In order to obtain the necessary funding to balance the FY11 budget, several different family cap and fee discount options will be presented.  None of the family caps being suggested are as low as $1,000,".