A group of Patterson High School and Patterson Joint Unified School District administrators put their heads together and found a way around charging student-athletes for transportation costs — for this year, at least.

The school initially requested $64,000 from the district, but because of state budget cuts, the district approved only $32,000.

The school district in July proposed charging students $30 for participation in one sport and $20 for each additional sport to make up the difference, but after complaints that the high school and its coaches weren’t given a chance to tackle the problem on their own, the school board opted to table a decision on the proposed fees.

Assistant Superintendent Steve Menge said at the Aug. 3 board meeting that the fees would not be necessary.

“We’ve worked something out to go this year without charging for sports,” Menge said.

Most of the savings actually came in the form of a correction in the school’s estimates of the yearly cost of transportation.

The school had overestimated the cost of some trips, athletic director Dave Klein said Monday. For example, the school estimated $350 for an average trip to Livingston — in actuality, such a trip would cost only $270.

Once adjustments like that were made, Klein said, the total cost for the year was down to $38,000.

The school then eliminated as many costly bus trips as it could. For sports with fewer than 25 players, coaches and volunteers will drive school vans or private vehicles instead of enlisting buses. That eliminates the cost of the bus driver’s pay — which was often time-and-a-half for sporting events late in the day — and the mileage fee the bus company charges.

It wasn’t a move Klein was happy about, but he said it was better than the alternative.

“The only thing with the bus is, to me, it’s very safe,” Klein said. “I’d much rather travel in a bus than a private vehicle.

“But we just have to get the cost down — either that or eliminate trips completely and reduce (games). We really don’t want to have to do that.”

The high school also came up with other ways to save or raise more money. Klein said they’ll be more adamant than in the past about having a ticket-taker at home freshman football games, ensuring no potential revenue is lost there. There are also tentative plans for a chicken barbecue fundraiser in October, and spring sports like baseball and softball, which have not set their schedules yet, will play two fewer games than normal.

Patterson High Principal Dave Stubbs said at the school board meeting that each sports team will be required to generate $500 in fundraising to go toward transportation costs.

Klein acknowledged it might not be fair to require smaller sports teams like girls golf or cross country to generate as much fundraising as the varsity football team, but he said money raised at a fireworks stand during the summer and the chicken barbecue can be used to help those teams that struggle to raise the $500.

School board member Bruce Kelly, who became frustrated at the July meeting when the board decided not to act on the proposed fees then, questioned bringing fundraising into the equation.

“Balancing the budget with fundraising is not a legitimate thing to do,” Kelly said.

But Klein said Monday that the total transportation budget was down to $29,000 — already below the $32,000 the district agreed to pay — even without the fundraising money.

He said his understanding is that the $500 each team raises will go into a “slush fund” that will help pay for transportation to potential playoff games — which are not figured into the current estimate — and to help offset any future state cuts the district might endure.

Klein said Patterson High is fortunate it has not yet had to charge athletes for transportation and that most schools in the state already do. He said he’s happy a solution was reached to prevent such fees this year, but with the economy still struggling, he would make no predictions about the future.

“Right now, I think it’s year by year,” Klein said. “I can’t say it’s going to get any better, because I don’t think it is right away.”

• Contact James Leonard at 892-6187 or james@pattersonirrigator.com.