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Board approves activity handbooks as trustees warn athletics and food-service budgets need fixes
Summary
Trustees approved student activities and coaches handbooks and heard staff present athletics expenses and a successful $78,000 fundraising pilot while warning that food-service costs have produced a shortfall; administration plans an external review and adjustments, and the board approved a modest meal-price increase.
The Laurel Public School District Board approved the 2026–27 student activities and coaches handbooks and heard a presentation showing substantial athletics travel and lodging costs and a recent fundraising pilot that raised more than $78,000.
District operations director Andrew presented a spreadsheet of gate receipts, lodging, officials and meal costs by sport and described revenue lines that offset expenses such as NFHS streaming checks and GoFan season-pass sales. He reported the district piloted a Snap Mobile fundraising campaign across eight sports that raised about $78,000 and noted that those dollars went into sport accounts during the pilot year.
Trustees focused on the large outlays for travel and postseason lodging (wrestling and certain postseason trips were singled out) and discussed scheduling, limiting travel and coordinating ticket pricing regionally. One trustee proposed raising gate prices for doubleheader nights to $10/$8 as Class A districts consider similar changes.
Food-service shortfall and meal-price vote: Administration told the board that food-service finances have worsened over the past two years and that a simple per-meal price increase will not fully solve structural issues. The superintendent said staff have scheduled an external review to diagnose causes and that long-term fixes could include contractor staffing models, phased staff migration or targeted sponsorships. The board voted to approve a meal-price increase for 2026–27 while acknowledging it will not immediately restore budget neutrality.
Why it matters: Athletics and food-service are significant recurring expenditures for the district; trustees described athletic operations as a multi–hundred-thousand-dollar draw on the general fund and said athletics and food service together deserve close attention to avoid ongoing structural deficits.
Follow-up: Administration will provide more detailed net‑revenue and expense rollups, an external review of food-service operations, and regular reports on athletics fundraising and infraction/expense data as the district implements changes.
Representative quotes: "We raised over $78,000 in our pilot Snap Mobile campaign across eight sports," Andrew said, describing the crowdfunding results. "That helped offset costs for the teams that participated."
On the food-service concerns, the superintendent said administration would bring in outside expertise to identify why the program lost ground the last two years and to evaluate options ranging from price changes to staffing-model shifts.
The board approved the LHS student activities handbook, LMS activities handbook and the coaches handbook by voice vote and instructed staff to return clearer financial rollups at a future meeting.
