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Monmouth-Roseville considers cutting sports

A local school district is facing a financial crunch. They’re trying to decide whether or not to save money by getting rid of sports. There’s no I i...

A local school district is facing a financial crunch. They're trying to decide whether or not to save money by getting rid of sports.

There's no I in team and soon there may be fewer teams in the Monmouth-Roseville school district.

"Each year we've talked about the possibility making cuts to some co-curricular programs and here we are again, really not knowing what the state of Illinois could do," said superintendent Ed Fletcher.

Up for discussion, cuts to all freshmen sports as well as junior high football, cheerleading and twirling.

"In the last two years we've cut approximately $754,000 dollars in expenses, but at that same time we've seen significant decreases in general state aid since fiscal year 2012. We've seen about $2.9 million dollars we've lost in general state aid," said Fletcher.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015, the school board discussed the possible cuts. Eliminating them would only save the district a little more than $28,000, but Fletcher says every option needs to be looked at.

"Making sure that what we provide needs for our kids as opposed to wants," said Fletcher.

The board agreed that cutting all the sports up for debate right now wouldn't help their financial problem and would only hurt their students.

"It would be asinine to get rid of any of these things because I think the affects would be far worse then the benefit." said board member, Anita Sells.

Instead the board discussed ways they could those sports funded, like adding a fee to participate. At the same time making sure they stay on a tight budget.

"Whether we have an abundance of money or not we still have to look to see if we're spending it wisely," said Sells.

Meanwhile the future of freshmen football and girls volleyball will be on the table at the next meeting.

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