COAL TOWNSHIP - The Shamokin Area School Board will consider cutting its athletic budget by 28 percent.
The board's athletic committee met Monday and recommended the school board approve cutting $156,749 from the $550,000 budget.
The proposed cuts include eliminating 13 coaching positions, reducing coaching salaries across the board by 35 percent and requiring district athletes to purchase their own uniforms.
It will take a majority of the nine-member school board to vote in favor of the recommendations in order to enact the cuts.
"We have no choice. If we don't do this we'd have to cut the kids' programs and no one wants that," said committee chairman Robert Getchey.
Getchey said he considered recommending that all coaches forego their salaries - which total approximately $162,000 combined - for a full year before settling on 35 percent.
The committee, also consisting of directors Jeffrey Kashner and Brian Persing, chose not to seek the outright elimination of any athletic programs.
This recommendation comes on the heels of last month's decision by the board to furlough 21 staff members, including 19 teachers, including all art, music and physical education teachers in the elementary and middle schools.
According to the committee, the 35-percent salary reduction would save $56,749; position eliminations, $40,122; miscellaneous cuts and supplies, including uniforms, $59,878.
The district spent $13,934 on uniform purchases this year for girls basketball, cheerleading, girls track, volleyball, golf, boys and girls soccer.
The recommended cuts would mean athletes would have to pay for own physicals.
Cuts to hotel expenses would not include district, regional and state tournaments.
The reduction to entry fees would not include costs to register with Pennsylvania Heartland Athletic Conference, PIAA, D-IV golf, Pennsylvania State Football Coaches Association, Eastern Conference and Twin Valley.
The elimination of four coaching positions over the previous two school years totaled $8,084 and were included in the committee's cost savings estimate.
The three committee members as well as director Charles Shuey, who sat in on the meeting, all admitted mistakes in the furlough process - having chosen to make education cuts before targeting extracurricular activities and administrative salaries and benefits.
"The perception is that we're all about athletics," Persing told the more than two dozen coaches who attended Monday's committee meeting at the middle/high school.
"If I had a nickel for everyone who asked me about the turf, we would have the $5.6 million," he added, noting the total deficit amount once faced by the district. That deficit is now approximately $2.5 million.
"That's why the public perceives you that way," said Connie Boyer, swim coach and gym teacher who was among the furloughs, "because you cut education before athletics."
"We're trying to make it right," Persing replied.
Getchey reiterated how challenging and personally painful the budget process has been for everyone involved. Kashner and Persing both noted the public backlash board members have endured.
Dave Kopitsky, a teacher and girls track coach, asked if the board would consider enacting a memorandum of understanding, allowing for the wage cuts to be lifted if the district's finances improve.
Getchey said they discussed it but couldn't make such a commitment.
The committee said next year's budget projections are also dire.
It's forecast the district will face a $3 million deficit when preparing the 2013-14 budget.
That budget projection could put junior high athletic programs in jeopardy, Getchey said, and the district may have to seek money from booster organizations.
Persing said efforts to raise funding to keep the district pool operating is failing. "It's flopping guys. The money is not coming in," he said.
Committee members took shots at the Gov. Corbett administration, saying the state failed to properly fund public education, specifically in funding poorer school districts like Shamokin Area.
They were also critical of past board decisions.
Getchey said not raising taxes for 20 years was a mistake.
Persing noted that teachers pay 1 percent of their health care costs.
He also said the district was running on a $2 million deficit each year for the past six years. Instead of making cuts, those on the board chose to cover the budget shortfall with reserve funding.
Getchey, elected to the board last fall, had served on the board 12 prior years. Persing is in his second term. Kashner is in his first.
The committee members and Shuey strongly urged the public to contact their state legislators with their concerns about the district's budget crisis, saying any legislator seeking to keep their job will listen to the complaints.
"I hope this works and I hope down the road we get a new governor and we get our money back," Getchey said.
Recommended athletic coaching cuts
Position Savings
Weight room coaches (3) $10,000
Boys basketball assistant $3,042
Junior high wrestling assistant $1,614
Varsity wrestling assistant $1,938
Baseball assistant (2) $4,656
Softball assistant (2) $4,518
Boys track assistant $2,742
Girls track assistant $1,914
Junior high track assistant $1,614
Previous cuts $8,084
Total $40,122
Other recommended cuts
Conferences $1,923
Swimming (buy own equipment) $3,780
New uniforms (athletes buy own) $15,560
Cheerleading (buy own equipment) $1,140
Meal costs $1,600
Hotel expenses (tournaments only) $1,865
Physicals $4,350
Coaching salary freeze $8,895
Mat crew $725
Entry fees/dues $5,998
Total $45,836
General supplies $14,042
Salary cuts $56,749
Overall potential savings $156,749