The Mascenic school board weighed transportation options for student athletes in its ongoing attempts to salvage extracurricular activities, including sports, at Boynton Middle School following budget cuts.
“I am looking for direction on the board on how you would like to proceed,” Mascenic School District Superintendent Elizabeth Pogorzelski said at Monday night’s meeting of the board. “This is our third year in a default budget, and we can no longer cut from places where we cut last year and the year before.”
Pogorzelski said the budget cuts put her in a “difficult position.”
“In the past, when the budget did not pass, we cut open positions, and we have run out of open positions to cut. I have to be cognizant of the message that I send to people when we say everything we cut is academic. Our staff already feels undervalued by our community. We have to find that balance between academics and extracurriculars,” Pogorzelski said.
The discussion followed the defeat of Mascenic’s proposed budget for the third year in a row. The district had proposed a $23,899,107 budget for 2026-27, about 8.75% higher than the default, but voters rejected it on March 10. That leaves the district operating under a default budget of $23,431,429, or $467,678 less than the proposal. Greenville voters supported Mascenic’s proposed budget, 135-92, while New Ipswich voters opposed it decisively, 981-623, resulting in the budget’s defeat.
Pogorzelski said this year’s cuts will have “much more direct impact on students.”
In addition to proposed cuts to all middle school extracurriculars, including athletics, theater and band, the district will eliminate four-and-a-half teaching positions and reduce administrative assistant hours at the SAU offices.
Pogorzelski said the total cost of athletics at Boynton Middle School is about $82,600, and that $30,000 of that cost is in transportation.
The board weighed several options that had come up at the district’s recent community forum, in which parents and community members suggested alternatives to busing, including carpools, one-way transport, and transport only to games more than one hour away.
Pogorzelski reported that the main suggestions that came out of the forum for covering sports fees including adapting a pay-to-play model and covering athletic fees with fundraising.
“There are challenges with ‘pay-to-play.’ No one wants to prevent a child from participating, and it is very hard to try to get money from people. It is already hard to collect for food services,” Pogorzelski said.
Pogorzelski said a ‘pay-to-play’ model would also require that the district fund extracurriculars in the budget and then try to recoup the cost through fees.
“What we got from the forum is that fundraising looks like the best option,” Pogorzelski said.
Board member Tim Somero spoke in favor of keeping bus transport for student athletes if possible.
“We need athletics; we have to figure this out,” he said. “Even if it’s just incentive to keep your grades up, athletics are very important and being on the bus is part of that experience. We need to look at the transportation policies and see if we can make adjustments.”
Board chair Mitch Gluck said the board was “very concerned about not eliminating the sports program.”
“We have been talking about transport and fundraising since last Wednesday. My own opinion is that the bus is part of the sports experience — learning how to deal with wins and losses, being with your teammates. I remember being on buses when we did not win, and peers provided support, a very empathetic experience,” he said.
Pogorzelski said she had requested numbers from the bus company to try to get an estimate on various alternative options for transportation.
The board also discussed the possibility of eliminating coaches’ stipends.
Gluck said while the board should consider eliminating stipends, he had misgivings with that option.
“I don’t want to send a message that coaches are not valued. Coaches are as instrumental as teachers, they do a lot of teaching; but we need to have some discussion. All options need to be on the table,” Gluck said
Pogorzelski said insurance would be a factor if parents transport students, or if high school students were to transport themselves.
“The insurance is a barrier, and then you would have coaches trying to figure out who is getting into one car. In other districts, it is a free-for-all, and kids just get in cars. We need to look at how do we keep kids safe in the most reasonable way possible?” Pogorzelski said.
Gluck said the district may hold another forum to keep discussing options and continue to gather community feedback on how to fund sports and other extracurriculars at the middle school.
“On behalf of the board, this is going to be a work in progress, with a lot of moving parts. We want it to work, but we want it to work well. We will continue to inform the public in every way possible we want people to know what’s happening,” Gluck said.