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Instead, program budgets will be trimmed and coaching jobs eliminated to save $153,000.

By RACHEL LENZI and DAVID HENCH Staff Writers July 6, 2007

The Portland School Department will cut spending for all high school sports programs by about 10 percent and eliminate 12 assistant coaching positions to stay within next year’s school budget rather than charge a student activity fee or eliminate programs. However, the possibility of charging students to play sports or participate in other school activities is likely to be debated in the future. “I think, in theory, an athletic or activity fee is probably where we’re headed, given what we know our budget forecast to be, going forward,” said Superintendent Mary Jo O’Connor, who announced the plan for making cuts on Thursday. “I was uncomfortable with the activity fee (this year) because of the lack of community involvement along the way,” she said. The sports cuts will have an effect on the programs, said Rick Holden, a Deering High School football booster. “I don’t know if this is the best way to do this (reduction) either,” Holden said. He would rather see cuts elsewhere in the budget. “The football program may have the most coaches, but they also have by far the most players,” he said. Deering has five football coaches and Portland High has six, but the coaches work on various facets of the game with various players, he said. “It’s difficult for one person to be teaching all of them at one time. You don’t want to get in a situation where half the kids are standing around because a coach is working with a select group.” The School Committee called for $153,000 in athletic cuts to hold spending within the $85.7 million school budget approved this spring by the City Council. The final budget required $710,000 in cuts overall, which included 50 staff positions systemwide, O’Connor said. Last week, a committee of school administrators recommended either adopting an activity fee of as much as $100 per student or cutting funds for ice hockey. Earlier in the process of paring down the athletic budget, suggestions included dropping middle school sports to the intramural level and eliminating freshmen sports. O’Connor instead decided that athletic administrators at Portland and Deering high schools will have to reduce their coaching staffs by six assistant coaches at each school and make other cuts. “The good news is that … it’s an equitable reduction across the board,” O’Connor said. She said that the non-staff cuts could be anything from buying cheaper shoulder pads to not buying new baseball bats for the school year, and that those choices will be made by athletic directors. O’Connor met on Thursday morning with athletic directors Rich Drummond of Portland and Gary Groves of Deering. She said each AD will make recommendations on the position cuts to the committee made up of middle school and high school administrators. The ADs will focus on sports with multiple assistant coaches, O’Connor said. Each school has about 20 coaches working in a given season, each of whom receives a modest stipend. A sport may require coaches for more than one team, such as freshmen, junior varsity and varsity. For fall sports this past school year at Portland and Deering, each soccer staff was made up of six coaches and each field hockey staff had three coaches. Portland had a staff of six football coaches and Deering had a staff of five. In winter, the boys’ and girls’ basketball staffs had six coaches at each school, and indoor track had four coaches at each school. Portland had four ice hockey coaches and Deering had three. For spring sports, the boys’ and girls’ lacrosse staffs had six coaches at each school, and outdoor track had four coaches. Baseball and softball each had three coaches at each school. The coaching cuts will probably mean more work for booster groups, which already raise money to support the programs, Holden said. “If they’re short a coach, the boosters are going to have to raise more money or the parents are,” he said.

Staff Writer David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at: dhench@pressherald.com Staff Writer Rachel Lenzi can be reached at 791-6415 or at: rlenzi@pressherald.com