WSD considers charging admission at middle school sports events

In an effort to recoup sports-related costs not covered by the district’s levy funds, the Washougal School District may begin to charge admission fees at some middle school athletic events starting next school year.

Superintendent Aaron Hansen told Washougal school board members on June 12 that the district would like to charge $2 for students who have an Associated Student Body card and $3 for adults or students without a card for some middle school sports competitions. Hansen said principals at the district’s Canyon Creek and Jemtegaard middle schools support the proposal.

If approved, the admission fees would take effect at the start of the 2025-26 school year.

The school board is expected to vote on the proposal later this summer.

The district’s middle school athletic director, Jake Healea, said the district is considering implementing gate fees at football, boys basketball, girls basketball and volleyball games held at Jemtegaard and Canyon Creek, but acknowledged that Jemtegaard’s open football field configuration could present some challenges collecting the admission fees.

“(Jemtegaard’s football field) is pretty open, unlike a lot of high school stadiums that are fully fenced,” Healea said. “I could see setting up a payment location and trying to direct people to it, but I don’t know how strictly enforced it could be.”

Athletic teams at Jemtegaard and Canyon Creek middle schools belong to the Southwest Washington Middle School League, which includes teams from Castle Rock, Longview, Kelso, Kalama, Ridgefield and Hockinson school districts, as well as King’s Way Christian School in Vancouver.

The league’s standard operating procedure states that participating schools must charge admission fees. The Washougal School District has requested an exemption from that requirement for the past several years, according to Healea.

“This would just bring us into alignment with all the other schools,” he said. “We’re the one district in the league that wasn’t (charging fees).”

Healea said the district spent approximately $25,000 from its Associated Student Body fund during the 2024-25 school year to pay for middle school athletic equipment, uniforms, balls, officials’ fees and other items. The district said a maintenance and operations levy, approved by voters in April 2023, pays for coaches’ salaries.

The school district currently charges students $20 for an ASB card and an additional $20 per sport they play, but Healea said those fees are not nearly enough to cover the cost of running middle school athletic programs.

“We have 300 kids who participate as middle school athletes, and most of them are not three- or four-sport athletes. They’re (in) one or two sports,” he said. “If you add that up, you’ll see that we’re not getting there. … We’ve been running deficits for years.”

Hansen told school board members during their June 12 meeting that the district would offer an exemption for families who can prove financial hardship.

“There’s still some things to work out,” Healea said. “Our high school has a ‘family pass’ kind of thing, and a number of the middle schools in our district also do some sort of ‘family ticket,’ so I’ll probably lean on them (to see) if there’s ways to help out families.”

Larger school districts in the region, including Vancouver Public Schools and Evergreen Public Schools do not charge admission fees for most middle school sports events, though Evergreen’s communications director, Craig Birnbach, said that district does charge for middle school “culminating events,” such as district track and field meets and wrestling tournaments, held on its campuses.

Doug Flanagan: 360-735-4669; [email protected]