Steven Morgado of William M. Davies Jr. Career and Technical High School, left, and Bradford Walling of North Smithfield battle for the ball. North Smithfield’s proposal for athletic fees of $175 or more includes a family cap of $600.

The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

NORTH SMITHFIELD — Fans can get into the high school’s games for free, but if a plan being considered by the School Committee goes through, it’ll be the players who pay, possibly $175 or more, to suit up for their school.

Money for the middle school and junior varsity sports programs was cut from the 2009-10 budget, but school officials say they might be able to restore it by charging the athletes fees for playing interscholastic sports. However, a state education official warned that similar plans have been ruled illegal in the past.

School Supt. Stephen Lind-berg said the specifics of which sports would cost how much to play have not been set and probably won’t be until the School Committee meets Aug. 10 to vote on the idea. Athletic Director Matthew J. Tek recommended charging $175 per athlete per sport — probably more for hockey and football — with a cap at $600 a year for families with multiple athletes in multiple sports.

Tek said that rate structure could generate the $54,000 needed to save the middle school and junior varsity programs. About 350 of the school system’s 1,800 students play sports.

At a news conference Friday in the high school library, Lindberg said the final fee numbers could change by Aug. 10, and that the administration also needed to come up with a waiver policy to help families who couldn’t afford the fees.

Though he said he understood the financial pressures that led the School Committee to consider the plan, William P. Nangle, coach of the high school girls’ hockey team, which went to the state finals last year, called the plan “a travesty.”

“I really believe it’s a huge blow to public education,” he said.

Players, too, were upset.

“We don’t like any of it,” Nicole Dumais, a sophomore forward on this year’s girls hockey team said. Players on all sports are already making significant time and money commitments to their teams, she said.

“We pay to sharpen our own skates, if our laces snap we buy them,” she said. “We buy our own warm-up suits.”

“A lot of people don’t have a lot of money,” Dumais said. “People will probably be dropping out [from the team] if they don’t have enough money.”

Fellow sophomore and defenseman Cara Figuerido agreed, and added that a fee system would hurt other sports when multi-sport athletes cut back. Figuerido said she plays soccer and softball, but her parents have told her if the fees go through, she’ll probably have to drop a sport.

“A lot of parents are saying kids are going to have to work for their sports money,” she said.

State Department of Education spokesman Elliot Krieger said no one at the department could comment on North Smithfield’s plan until they saw it, but said as recently as 2005 a similar idea was deemed illegal.

At that time, the Burrillville School Committee asked if it could charge fees for athletics and extracurricular activities. Then-Commissioner of Education Peter McWalters said no.

“While I appreciate the financial difficulties that Burrillville and the other districts of Rhode Island are experiencing,” McWalters wrote, “I must inform you that school fees for athletics and extracurricular activities are not legally permissible in Rhode Island public schools.”

From 1839 to 1868, he said, the state allowed towns to bill families for the cost of schools, with waivers for those who couldn’t afford them. That practice was repealed in 1868, McWalters said, and “because of this repeal, Rhode Island public schools may not charge fees for school services or programs.”

If that’s the state’s answer this year, School Committee Chairman Robert E. Lafleur said, he would expect his committee to challenge it in court. He said the fee revenue is a life-or-death question for boys and girls middle school and junior varsity sports; without the $54,000, the programs can’t be run. He said the School Committee and administration were committed to finding some way to raise the money.

North Smithfield isn’t the only school department cutting sports. In Woonsocket, the School Committee earlier this month voted to cut all sports but track. Coaches, athletes and their families have met to explore ways to raise the money needed to keep the programs going, but no fee programs have been proposed by the School Committee. Cranston, too, cut its middle school sports program.

Lafleur said North Smithfield’s problem is that the Town Council approved a $20-million school budget for 2009-10 that was literally $4 more than last year’s. That meant the School Committee has to cut about $1.2 million from what it hoped to get, he said.

School Committee member Paul Vadenais said that, so far, the committee has found about $700,000 in cuts. Among them are 4.5 teaching positions, an assistant principal, a secretary, a custodian and a maintenance worker. Schools will close at 6 p.m. for nonschool events, Lafleur said.

Included on the list was $20,000 for middle school sports, $24,000 for junior varsity and a $10,000 cut — about 33 percent — in hockey rink time from the $210,000 interscholastic sports budget.

Lindberg said the school system was not blaming anyone for the problem, just trying to find a solution.

“The Town Council and School Committee worked hard together,” he said. “No one’s trying to stick a finger in someone’s eye.”By the numbers

Proposed fee: $175 or more

Students in sports: 350

Shortfall in sports: $54,000

School budget: $20 million

Increase from last year: $4

jhill@projo.com