North Attleborough Public Schools warns athletic program faces $130,000 shortfall; staff recommends fee and budget changes

Staff member, a district staff presenter, told the meeting that North Attleborough Public Schools’ athletics program is operating in the red and projected a budget shortfall for fiscal year 2026. “We don't have an adequate up operating budget or any budget for that matter to fund our athletic program. We're running in a deficit position. We have been for about solid 2 years now, I think. And our estimated cost of operations next year for athletics is 836,000,” the Staff member said.

The shortfall stems from the difference between the program’s total costs and the money currently available from three revenue pools, the presenter said. “Historically, we funded athletics from 3 different pools of funds. The first being the operating budget,” the Staff member said, adding that the operating budget has historically covered only staff salaries. The presenter said the operating budget last year was $516,000 and that the district also collects user fees and some gate receipts. “So when you add it all up, operating budget, user fee revenue, gate receipt revenue, we're only taking in a little under $700,000 to fund this total cost of 836,000. So we are basically running in a without any changes, we're gonna be running in a deficit position of over a $130,000,” the Staff member said.

The presenter described more recent, limited additions to the operating budget and noted equity concerns over relying on parents for some costs. “In the last 2 years, we've added this $25,000, it's just 2 years old, for ice time because we're relying on the parents to pay for ice time, which is simply not an equitable solution,” the Staff member said.

To address the gap, the Staff member recommended two primary changes to the district’s proposed budget: increase the athletics portion of the operating budget by about $100,000 and raise the user fee. “What I'm recommending in this what this budget has in the budget, and I already highlighted this, is that I am recommending that we increase the operating budget in this budget by about a 100 thou by a $100,000. And then I am recommending we increase the user fee to 250. And also increasing the family cap. This would enable us to effectively be whole coming into FY 26 and also give us a little bit of flexibility,” the Staff member said.

A second speaker expressed concern about raising fees while urging broader access to after-school activities. “Yeah. I'm disappointed to see the the the athletic fees going up. I'm not gonna fight you out. It's not a hell I'm gonna die on, but, I understand what the position you're in. But I I, you know, I wanna go on record as saying I think every single student should have something to do after school,” the Committee member said. That speaker also asked for accountability around fee collection: “I really want some accountability on how who's collecting the fees and make sure that just the athletes are not getting their funds collected. I think that's Yep. That's that's shameful. That that should have never happened.”

The transcript contains no formal motion or recorded vote on the recommendations. The presenter said the district is currently so lean that some summer bills have been held until revenue arrives. “Because we don't have enough user fee revenue right now, Gil has had to hold on to bills from the summer until now because we quite literally don't have the budget to pay the bills yet,” the Staff member said.

The discussion combined factual detail about revenues and expenses with a staff recommendation; no outcome or formal board direction is recorded in the provided transcript. If the district proceeds with the recommended changes, the presenter said they would eliminate the roughly $130,000 shortfall projected for FY26 and provide some additional flexibility in the athletics budget.

The meeting discussion also noted limited gate-receipt revenue, which varies by sport and can be affected by weather, and that the $25,000 ice-time line item is a recent addition intended to reduce reliance on parent payments.

Next steps were not specified in the transcript excerpt provided.