By Madeline Hoskinson, Reporter

Athletes will pay $50 more per sport next year, after the school board raised athletic fees from $100 to $150, giving Kaneland will have the highest sports fee among area schools.

“We don’t charge any different for cross country than we do for football and anything else,” Leigh Jaffke, athletic director, said.

Though all athletes pay the same amount throughout all sports, some sports cost the school  more to run per student. Among the most expensive are bowling, wrestling and girls’ basketball, each of which costs more than $1,600 per participant, even after the athletic fee is paid. Among the least expensive is cheer leading, which costs  $276 per participant after fees are paid.

Club fees have also been raised from $40 to $60, which still doesn’t cover expenses. PIE Club, the most expensive per participant, costs $1,039 per student. Art Club is the least expensive per student and the only club that makes money (about $14 per student). A new $60 fee is also required to participate in the play or musical.

The district has cut about $1.1 million from its budget and Jaffke said raising fees was necessary.

“The district felt as though to maintain the programs we currently have at the level we have them, we had to increase the fees, otherwise we’d have to be cutting programs,” Jaffke said.

Cuts were proposed during the previous round of budget cuts but were strongly protested by the community. The board made cuts elsewhere instead to preserve athletic and activity  programs.

“They can’t change it, but I feel like there are other places they could get the money from,” junior Lauren Banbury said.

Some critics are worried students will have a more difficult time paying the fees, but Jaffke said Kaneland is one of several area schools that raised fees.

“I did a survey of local schools in our conference and a lot of them have either raised fees or are going to raise fees due to the economic times, and none of them have seen any kind of decrease in participation,” Jaffke said.

KANELAND SPORTS FEES COMPARED TO OTHER SCHOOLS

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?

Cost per student to run each sport after athletic fee is paid:

• Bowling: -$1,774
• Girls’ Basketball: -$1,677
• Wrestling: -$1,671
• Volleyball: -$1,330
• Softball: -$1,238
• Golf: -$1,162
• Girls’ Track: -$1,140
• Football: -$1,017
• Boys’ Cross Country: -$689
• Baseball: -$742
• Boys’ Soccer: -$689
• Cheerleading: -$276