Dunellen And Colonia Forced To Have Freshmen Play Football With JV And Varsity While South Plainfield Saves Freshmen Programs By Being Creative
SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ–This week, reality began to set in across Middlesex County as well as the rest of the Garden State as school budget cuts that had to be made in the wake of voters rejecting school budgets by historic margins. Many schools in the Greater Middlesex Conference including Dunellen and Colonia had to eliminate freshmen programs for sports such as football as stated in an article from the Star-Ledger.
Colonia had to disband its freshmen football program due to a $47,000 cut in its athletic department while Dunellen had to cut its freshmen football team due to a $15,400 shortfall. DHS is getting nearly $700,000 less from the state in aid this coming school year. According to a April 15th survey of athletic directors around the GMC, Colonia, J.F. Kennedy, Middlesex, North Brunswick, Piscataway, South River, South Plainfield, Spotswood and Woodbridge stood to lose freshman programs. However, one of those schools got creative, and was able to save its freshmen programs.
South Plainfield, the hometown and alma mater of GMC Hoops, was able to save its freshmen sports despite a reduction in budget by 50 percent from approximately $200,000. According to another article from the Star-Ledger, the South Plainfield school district had its operating budget reduced nearly $8 million. Spending on school supplies such as textbooks were estimated to drop one third while expenditures for extracurricular activities was forecast to be reduced one sixth. SPHS Athletic Director, Mike Buggey, who has been at the post since the 1994-95 was able to create a new plan using money from retiring teachers salaries and a switch in insurance companies along with a strict budget. The plan saved freshman sports along with the swim team and winter track at SPHS.
The cuts in freshmen programs has affected the coverage of the GMC Hoops season opener between St. Joseph’s and Colonia as well as the annual Perth Amboy/GMC Freshmen Boys Basketball Tournament held in February.