Saratoga News

Athletic Boosters Auction expected to raise $100,000

By John Pancharian

There is a signed Joe Montana jersey going up for auction in Saratoga on May 17. It is just one of the items in the 18th annual Saratoga High School Athletic Boosters Auction, which the school relies on to overcome a perennial lack of funding for athletic programs.

The "auction" is really a number of events that take place from 2 to 8 p.m. at the Saratoga County Club, including dinner, music and both silent and oral auctions. It is the primary fundraiser the boosters use each year to help fill the $170,000 gap between the cost of SHS athletics programs and the available district budget.

Cost for the evening is $75. Those attending will listen to live piano music and munch on dinner while bidding on that Montana jersey--valued at $1,800. And that's just the beginning. There are some 50 items in the oral auction, including luxury vacations, antique furniture, more sports memorabilia from the 49ers and San Jose Sharks and even temporary slaves--someone will go home having bought four hours' worth of work by the junior varsity football team.

The silent auction includes more than 300 items in seven categories, most of which were donated by local businesses.

"The community should really support this," Sandy Lewis, auction co-chairwoman, said. "We tap the parents left and right. [Community members] can buy a vacation or a signed jersey--something that will benefit them."

Lewis said that the 245 members of the sports boosters do almost nothing but work to provide SHS with an adequate athletics budget, and still they have their hands full. She said it costs more than $235,000 to run the SHS athletics programs, but the district only provides $60,000 annually. The shortfall must come from the Associated Student Body, which provides more than $80,000 each year, about $12,000 directly from boosters members' dues and donations, and the rest--more than $100,000, Lewis hopes--from the auction.

"All the uniforms we have and all the major equipment improvements we make are done by them," SHS principal Kevin Skelly said, explaining that the new track and the baseball and softball fields were built largely through boosters funds.

Lewis runs a finger down the SHS athletics budget page, ticking off such items as assistant coaches' salaries, mats for the wrestling team and the spirit squad.

And things are no different in many other areas. Glancing over a list of clubs at SHS, one sees the word "boosters" connected to everything from music to speech and debate.

The reasons for the funding gap began with Proposition 13, which drained money from the schools, Lewis said. But Saratoga, in spite of being a relatively affluent community, also lacks the sort of dynamic business that brings in tax dollars, she said. This has left the responsibility of providing local students with adequate athletics entirely on the shoulders of parents.

"It's amazing that people think we're a rich district," Lewis said. "Actually we're one of the poorer ones. The point is that this is money that the school just wouldn't have if we didn't do this."

[ Back to Contents Page | Saratoga News Home Page | Archives ]