West Warwick students, from left, Tyler Coburn, Kevin Paygai and Kyle Henseler, all 10, are among about 100 students, parents and others demonstrating outside Deering Middle School, where the School Committee was meeting last night.

The Providence Journal / BOB THAYER

WEST WARWICK — It’s Michelle Balstad’s first year at Deering Middle School and all she wanted was to be a cheerleader.

She couldn’t.

Seventh-graders Megan Lourenco and Samantha Webb wanted to play soccer and compete against friends in other cities.

They wouldn’t.

They, along with about 100 friends, supporters, students, coaches and parents, filled the cul de sac at the end of Webster Knight Drive yesterday as they protested the lack of money in this year’s budget for middle school sports.

The group called out “Save our Sports” to anyone who approached the entrance of the middle school, where the School Committee was to hold its regular meeting.

School officials waded through the sea of orange and black as they went into the building, some cheering alongside, others stonefaced as they reached for the door.

With each arrival, the protesters yelled louder, their signs waving and voices carrying. This was important to the community, they said. It is important to students.

“It’s a drop in the bucket compared to other expenses,” said Sean Henseler, the protest organizer.

“I’m not saying it’s more important, but it’s just one other thing that helps our kids have a well-rounded education.”

Ultimately, the School Committee last night unanimously agreed to reinstate middle school interscholastic sports, even though they had no solid idea immediately of how to pay for it.

IT COSTS roughly $50,000 to run the sports program. The district cut out middle school sports in the last budget year in preparation for the Caruolo lawsuit it would file earlier this spring, seeking an additional $1.1 million in operating funds from the town.

After the cut, School Committee members Bruce Vanasse and James Williamson, in their role as parents, formed a group to help privately finance the athletics program, and not just some of the sports.

“It’s a situation where you can’t pick and choose sports,” Williamson said in an interview last week. “You can’t raise money for just one or two. You have to have opportunities across the board for kids.”

So, Williamson essentially obtained a loan from the School Department with the stipulation that, through fundraising events, parents and supporters would pay it back. As of last week, Williamson said he’d turned in a check for $25,000 to the district. But much of the remaining $25,000 still needed to be raised.

The program was set to continue for the academic year that just began, with the assumption that money for it would be raised somehow. But last week, after signups and, in some cases, team tryouts, school officials announced the program had been shelved.

Within days, word spread and parents and supporters decided their best option would be to turn out en masse at the Town Council and School Committee meetings last night.

As supporters protested in front of the middle school, and later Town Hall, they couldn’t believe there was no other way to find the money.

“I want to know what’s happening to my taxes,” said Kimberly Beck, whose 12-year-old son, Kyle, planned to participate in sports this year. “We pay $4,200 in property taxes and our kids can’t have middle school sports?”

After the school board meeting, Chairman Daniel T. Burns Jr. said he had asked his fellow members during a closed session to support reinstating the sports program.

In a one-page statement he read first to the School Committee in closed session, and then to the protesters gathered in the library for the open meeting, Burns said sports are “as important in building the mind and body of these students as the core subjects that are offered in the classroom.”

As he announced that sports would restart this morning, the crowd in the broke out in cheers.

While the committee’s endorsement of the programs rang throughout the library, less clear is what exactly this all means for the district, its financial situation, and ultimately, to the taxpayers.

“If we end this year back in court attempting to justify this expenditure, then let a court judge tell the citizens of West Warwick that they cannot have this program,” Burns said. “Let litigation decide, once and for all, the future of the athletic programs and their importance to our educational programs.”

tbuford@projo.com