A $62,000 budget cut in the activities account for the Grand County School District is almost accounted for, thanks to the work of faculty and community members, according to Grand County High School Principal Steve Hren.

The budget cut, a consequence of the $1.2 million shortfall discovered early this fall in the GCSD’s 2009-2010 budget, was originally set at $100,000. However, because of special federal grant funding that was recently announced for the BEACON afterschool program, the district was able to lower the amount that must be cut to $62,000.

Hren, faculty members, and Moab citizens went to work to find ways to continue to decrease that amount. The Activities Committee was created and charged with coming up with recommendations to present to the Grand County Board of Education about what the committee could do to make up the required cuts.

The committee agreed that re-implementing a Booster Club is one way to alleviate the financial crisis, according to Hren. The Booster Club acts much in the same way as the Quarterback Club, a fundraising organization set up specifically for the GCHS football team. The difference is that all funds raised through the Booster Club are used for all activities across the board, not just sports.

One of the focuses of the Booster Club fundraising efforts is to cut transportation costs for the district, which is one of the largest expenses in terms of activities. Lodging and meal fees will no longer be provided for coaches in the district for the rest of the year. The coaches have the option of paying those expenses themselves or adding a nominal amount to the travel payment already paid by the athletes.

Training local residents to be referees for sporting events will also help cut transportation costs by eliminating expenses acquired by hiring officials from out of town. Recently, these costs for three different sporting events reached $600.

The Activities Committee also recommended increasing gate prices to sporting events by $1, an action approved by the school board at their Nov. 18 meeting. The new prices will be $6 for adults, $5 for students with an activity card, and $5 for senior citizens, for whom admission was previously free. The ticket entrance gate will also be moved to a more remote location to stop people from sneaking in to the games. The committee further hopes to have more halftime programming to boost attendance, said Hren.

A number of other actions also accounted for the decrease in the activities deficit. First, the football team decided to donate $3,000 from their fundraising efforts to put toward the $62,000. Also, all of the GCHS coaches held a meeting last week and decided to give back the money allocated to their teams for supplies, knowing that without it, cuts would be made to a number of activities and contests, Hren said. This amount totaled $9,000.

The Utah State Board of Education had already made cuts to the number of games this season due to statewide general education budget cuts. Because of a new budget analysis based on the number of games the Grand County School District had scheduled and the new schedule, it was discovered that an additional $16,000 could be saved from transportation and operational costs through the reduction of the number of games, according to Hren.

School officials also noted that an increase in gate admissions for mainly volleyball and football this fall had provided another $6,000 in revenues. These amounts, totaling $34,000, along with significant savings associated with the elimination of travel stipends, makes up almost all of the $62,000, Hren said.

“We’ve been busy,” Hren said. “If we were not able to cut the money out ourselves, more games would have been cut from the season. This way, the students will not be affected quite so much.”

Although the Activities Committee was able to come up with the funds, they will still be focused on fund-raising to proactively avoid future cuts, Hren said.