Prince George’s County high school students will have to fork out $50 a year to play sports starting next year. The fee, announced Thursday as the county school board grapples with a $145 million budget shortfall, will be charged per year and will not increase if students play more than one sport or transfer to a different high school in the same district.
Cheryl Jamall, director of fundraising and activities for the district’s Parent Teacher Student Organization, said she hopes the fees will be removed when the economy improves.
“We’re concerned, because with inflation and the state of the economy, will this be the cap?” she said.
Her daughter plays on the golf team at Gwynn Park High School. While the fees will not prevent her from being on the team, Jamall said she would have liked to know about the fees earlier.
“It would be nice to know going into the next school year, which starts August 22, what we need to budget for,” she said.
Students who cannot afford the fee may be able to have it lowered or eliminated, and students’ ability to pay it will not affect their eligibility for team sports, the school system says.
Prince George’s County is not the first school system in the area to charge sports fees. The counties turned to the fees in recent years as the recession took its toll on government finances.
Montgomery County charges $30 per student per year, $15 for families that make less than $35,000 annually. Fairfax County charges $100 per student per sport, but waives the fee for students who buy free or reduced-cost lunches. Loudoun County also charges $100 per student per sport, with a similar policy of a waiver for students on reduced lunches.
The District of Columbia, Alexandria and Arlington and Prince William counties do not charge fees for sports.
Prince George’s County’s school system originally was facing a $155 million budget shortfall for the fiscal year that starts July 1 and had planned more than 1,100 job cuts and reductions to the school system, such as making pre-kindergarten a half day.
The County Council gave the schools more than County Executive Rushern Baker proposed, but the schools still have to find $145 million to cut.
