How to Save Sports by Cutting Other Extracurricular Activities
School sports have faced a great deal of cutbacks in the past few years. As schools struggle to stay within their budget, sports teams are often put on the chopping block in the name of saving money. The importance of sports teams can't be ignored. Aside from keeping kids active, sports teams help students improve their social skills. Someone who may be rather quiet in the classroom can find his voice and become a leader while playing sports. In order for a school or institution to save its sports programs, other activities will need to be cut.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Examine a detailed budget for all of the extracurricular programs at the school or institution. Try to use a budget that's as itemized as possible so that you know where every dollar is going.
-
2
Categorize the extracurricular activities into essential and non-essential. School dances and field trips might be fun for the students, but they're not as essential to the students' needs as peer tutoring or non-sporting clubs. Since not every student will play sports, the school or institution should make allowances for non-sporting teams and clubs.
-
-
3
Cut down the number of non-essential activities to a bare minimum or remove them entirely. If money that's being spent on field trips could instead go towards buying new sports equipment then cut field trips, starting with those that are non-educational.
-
4
Find ways to reduce the amount of money spent on essential extracurricular activities. Get teachers or instructors involved with extracurricular programs on a volunteer basis rather than counting the time spent coaching towards overtime payments. Reuse materials whenever possible to keep supply costs down.
-
5
Calculate how much money cutting and reducing the number of extracurricular activities is saving and add it to the sports budget. If there's still a deficit, go over the reduced extracurricular budget to see if any further cuts can be made.
-
6
Put the money where it's most needed in the sports programs. The soccer team having usable equipment is more important than getting the football team new jerseys.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Simply transferring funding from one program (arts) to another (sports) won't work in the long run. Ultimately, you need to find a way for both programs to exist side by side on at least a minimum basis so that all students will be able to take advantage of the programs that interest them.
Don't spend unnecessarily when creating the sports budget. School teams don't need brand new uniforms every year and should use volunteers wherever possible when trying to get coaches.
References
- Photo Credit Varsity Sports Jacket image by Sirena Designs from Fotolia.com
