Elyria schools to hold public discussion on pay-to-play

As Elyria Schools close a school year that saw the district cut $9 million in funding and lay off dozens of staff members, discussions about charging students to participate in extracurricular activities continue to heat up. The Elyria Board of Education will dedicate time at the beginning of its upcoming meeting Wednesday to hear from members of the public on the proposal to implement a "pay to participate" policy. "All spring, the board has indicated that they were going to have a meeting to allow the community to weigh in," Superintendent Ann Schloss said Thursday. "Whether it be parents, coaches, community members, the board wants to hear from them. We presented the data at a meeting (in March) ... they wanted time to go through the data, and now we are ready to open it up for public comment." Calls for the district to charge students who participate in nonacademic activities have been around for years, but heated up at the meeting in February where the board voted to approve $9 million in budget cuts that officials said were needed to keep the district financially sustainable. Numerous parents and members of the public spoke up at the meeting — which was held in the Elyria High School Performing Arts Center and attended by hundreds — to argue that the district should make fewer staffing cuts and make up the difference by instead cutting sports or charging students to participate in after-school activities. Schloss and Treasurer Colleen Aholt said at the time that staffing is the district's largest expense by far, and so to make the size of cuts necessary it had to be the focus of the reduction plan. Schloss has also repeatedly said that the district has avoided charging students to participate in activities in the past because many families would be unable to pay the costs. District officials did take the complaints to heart, though, and board President Elaine Seguin instructed the district administration to review the possibility of pay to participate. "I feel students who are involved in extracurricular activities — whether it be choir, football, robotics, any club or team — I have always called it the fifth core, that is an important part of their school journey," Schloss said Thursday. "Obviously I have been very transparent and honest that I am worried about losing participants if they can't afford it. But that is all part of the discussion, and we are open to hearing all sides so they board can make a decision." At a board meeting in March, Elyria Athletic Director Heather Beck presented a basic outline of what the program may look like, assuming a $100 charge per student per sport. Schloss said that this amount would bring in between $125,000 and $175,000 per year, but only if every student currently playing a sport continued to do so. "I can say it would probably, at the most, be half of that (amount)," Schloss said in March. The district said that most schools in the county and in Elyria's Southwestern Conference do charge students who participate in sports, but that several districts that are demographically similar to Elyria, including Lorain, Toledo and Euclid, did not. As the district continues to explore and research charging fees to participate, officials are ready to bring the public back into the conversation at their next regular meeting. The beginning of the upcoming June 10 board meeting, starting at 5:30 p.m. at 42350 Adelbert St., will be dedicated to public comment and discussion on the proposal. To speak at the meeting, residents must sign up beforehand and they will be granted a maximum of five minutes to speak. For more information about the meeting, visit elyriaschools.org/district/board_of_education. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.