The school’s annual ASB budget consistently runs a budget deficit and is unable to pay for unplanned expenses, such as postseason playoff games. To address this, the school has increased the cost of both ASB cards and the sports fees students pay.

With the football season in full swing, tons of dances, events and assemblies, ASB is struggling to pay for its expenses.“By how much they make, no sport can pay for itself,” Administrative Assistant Valerie Perine said. In 2023-2024, the total cost to the school for all of the sports was nearly $450,000. The school only managed to cover this by transferring in $160,000 from other sources.

However, it is not just a normal sport. The highest cost is the postseason. The school started 2022 already more than $120,000 in debt from postseasons of previous years. That year, they spent close to $50,000 more on postseason games, without any attempt to cover it. At the end of that year, they ended $170,000 down. “We’re lucky in some ways that we have so many successful teams and go to the postseason, but then [we’re] seeing the expenditures that it creates, [and] our money doesn’t keep up with it,” ASB Administrator Toby Swanson said.

To pay off this debt, the biggest thing that the school has done is increased the cost of ASB cards. This year they went from $75 to $100. This raises concerns that people won’t be buying the cards, but the ASB administrator Toby Swanson feels confident that students will be buying the cards. “Students are forced to buy them, due to some activity they participate in that requires it, like a sport or like a club,” Swanson said. Since the school can’t afford to pay for its expenses, they are pressuring students to buy more expensive ASB cards.

This year the school has already put some new tactics into play for raising money as we have discussed. The increased cost to ASB cards and sports fees are a good example of this. In addition, they could cut sports, but nobody really says that is a last resort as the community cares deeply about and participates in sports and clubs. And to be fair, the school does need money. The more people that show up to sports games, attend dances and even buy ASB cards, the more able school is to provide us with the amenities it is always trying to provide.