TAMAQUA - Parents of student athletes who participate in the golf, tennis and cheerleading programs in the Tamaqua Area School District might pay the entire cost of those sports to keep them available to their children.
The school board voted Tuesday to discontinue the three sports next school year to help close a deficit in the district's 2012-13 budget.
However, parents who belong to the booster club organizations that support the student sports are interested in raising the money to pay the entire cost without financial help from the district, the district's athletic director, Mike Hromyak, said Thursday.
Hromyak said the cheerleading and golf booster clubs have expressed an interest in taking over all financial responsibility for the activities. For the tennis team, which does not have an organized booster club, parents will try to raise the funds on their own, he said.
"The board has dropped those three sports but has indicated if the boosters are interested in financing the sports that they would be reinstituted," Hromyak said. "It is our hope that can happen and that funds can also be raised to allow our boys' tennis program to continue."
There are currently 21 students who participate in boys' varsity golf, 10 members of the boys' varsity tennis team, and nine girls on the high school cheerleading squad and 19 girls on the middle school squad.
Eliminating the three activities would shave about $25,000 from costs in 2012-13, district Superintendent Carol Makuta told school directors as they deliberated next year's budget.