... Most of the concerns voiced at a series of finance committee meetings were about cuts to district sports programs and elementary school musical instrument training. Earlier projected at as much as $1,142,500 for sports and $283,887 for the music programs, those cuts have now been reduced to $112,851 that comes from eliminating string music training in third grade and $133,122 in cuts to sports programs.

Supporters of those programs, though, said they’d rather see no cut to sports or music.

Board member Bill Brong was applauded when he suggested that the district go back to its earlier suggestion of dropping the SATV cable television channel, plus add income from proposed increases in fees to participate in school activities and for student parking at the high school, to keep sports and music, and still balance the budget.

“Leave the strings, leave the sports alone,” Brong said. “Let’s move this budget forward.”

Eliminating SATV would have cut $96,803 from the budget, according to the earlier projections, but district administrators now say the station can be used to bring in money both from television and Internet productions.

A new administration recommendation made at the April 13 finance committee meeting would double the activity and parking fees, putting those rates at $100 per year for students participating in secondary school extracurricular activities and $50 for parking.

Two elementary school students also voiced their support for the music programs.

Hey also outlined the proposed cuts to sports programs.

At the middle school, all junior varsity teams would be eliminated, but varsity teams would remain.

At the high school, winter track, which many schools don’t have, Hey said, would be eliminated. There would also be reductions in coaching positions and other expenses for some other sports.

In answer to other later questions about the possibility of having volunteer coaches, Hey said the district already has some and could add to that, but cannot eliminate a sports program that has paid coaches, then replace it with volunteers.

The sports cut that most of the opposition centered on was one to eliminate ninth-grade baseball, basketball, lacrosse, soccer and softball teams.

“It doesn’t mean ninth-graders couldn’t play those sports,” Hey said. Those students could go out for the high school teams, he said.

The ninth-graders would not make either the varsity or junior varsity high school teams, though, effectively cutting out their participation, and many of the students would probably not return to the sport after the yearlong gap, opponents of the move argued.

Ninth-grade field hockey and football teams, the most popular among the students, would continue under the proposal, district officials said.