Only 36 Percent Ante Up for Hempfield’s Pay-to-Play Requirement

By Richard Gazarik

Only 36 percent of the Hempfield Area School District’s middle and high school students have paid the controversial “pay-to-play” student activity fees required for participants in sports or other extracurricular activities.

Superintendent Terry Foriska said that number is an average based on the three middle schools and senior high school. The fee affects between 3,000 and 3,500 students and is expected to generate $60,000 to $70,000 for the general fund, school officials said.

Faced with a 1.7-mill tax increase, the school board voted to adopt a $20 fee for students who want to participate in clubs, use the computer lab or fitness and wellness centers. Any student- athlete, cheerleader or band member has to pay a $50 fee.

Monday was the payment deadline.

“I probably would have expected it to be a little higher,” Foriska said of the percentage who paid. “Some kids brought the money on the first day of school.”

He said a letter was sent to parents over the summer reminding them of the fees. Foriska said he received about 35 e-mails from parents seeking clarification about the fees.

Hempfield, like other school districts, provides a wide range of activities and clubs, such as French, Spanish, drama, art, chorus and weight training.

In addition to traditional sports such as football, basketball, wrestling and soccer, it has the club sports of ice hockey and lacrosse.

Foriska said the activity fee must be paid whether or not a student participates in extracurricular programs. He said it is too early in the school year to determine how the fee may affect membership in clubs and other school-sponsored functions.

So far, all athletes have paid, he said.

Students who fail to pay will be banned from participation and barred from class-related trips, and they could have their report cards withheld at the end of the school year, Foriska said.

Teachers and coaches say parents are complaining.

Bill Swan, a math teacher and high school basketball coach, said players’ parents are upset “because they don’t know where the money is going.” Swann said parents are protesting by writing derisive comments on the checks.

“They’ve written in the memo field, ‘BS fund,’ or a remark about keeping the money away from the football program,” he added.

Math teacher Joe Scheuermann, president of the Hempfield Area Teachers Association, said only four of 20 students in his homeroom have paid the activity fee.

“The kids are saying, ‘I’m not going to pay, what are they going to do to me?’” Scheuermann said. “We’re supposed to be broke, broke, broke, broke. All of a sudden, they have $190,000 to re-sod a practice field and get air conditioning for the football locker room at $4,000 a month.”

Scheuermann was referring to the recent expenditures to install new grass on a practice field and air conditioners for the locker room and weight room at the athletic complex.

Foriska said the money for those projects came from a bond issue and that the rental cost of the air-conditioning units will go toward the purchase price if the school board decides to buy them.

Scheuermann said parents are concerned that the additional revenue will be used to fund sports at the expense of other programs.

“Sports are continually funded while we denigrate education,” he said.

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