The Schenectady Gazette reported this morning that Galway Central Schools (a small town in Saratoga County) could slash nine junior varsity sports to help make up for an anticipated loss of $1.1 million in state aid.

The district is proposing a $17.7 million budget, which includes a 3% tax increase.

Galway's soccer (boys and girls), volleyball, basketball (boys and girls), wrestling, cheerleading, baseball and softball programs will lose their JV teams. The move is expected to save the district $45,000 on coaching salaries, team transportation and equipment and officials expenses.

The district also plans to cut 1.4 teaching positions and a cleaning and clerical position.

A public meeting will be held on May 5 at 6:30 p.m. in the high school library. Galway's vote is set for May 18.

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The New York State Sportswriters Association is following school budget cuts and the effect on sports here at this link: http://www.newyorksportswriters.org/reference/budget-2010.shtml

Troy High dodged a bullet last week, but are there any other schools in Rensselaer County facing a similar crisis as Galway?

Our Cecilia Martinez reported this morning that the The Enlarged City School District of Troy will keep its athletic programs and also keep School 2 open, looking for more temporary solutions to its $2.4 million budget shortfall.

Click here to read her story and check back to www.troyrecord.com later today and tomorrow for more on this story.

News reporter Danielle Sanzone covered the Enlarged School District of Troy’s meeting Monday night, where school board members discussed an across-the-board proposal to cut all funding for sports and extracurricular activities at Troy.

Click here to read Danielle's story and click below to see her video.

The school is $2.4 million short on the budget and originally considered closing School 2, to much public backlash.

From Danielle's story:

"The district’s Board of Education was given a recommendation by Superintendent Fadhilika Atiba-Weza, right before the meeting at School 16, to cut non-instructional programming in the district – eliminating all extracurricular activities besides student council would save about $125,000, shutting down all district pools would save $250,000 and cutting all sports programs would save another $450,000."

Shutting down the New Covenant Charter School would save another $500,000. All of these small changes could help the district make up that $2.4 million shortfall and keep School 2 open and keep the tax increase at a reasonable rate.

"District officials said at the last meeting that they would announce at the School 16 meeting if School 2 would close. Now, the school board plans to announce their decision on April 19 at 6:30 p.m. at School 18 and will vote on the budget on April 21."

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What makes this story that much more interesting is that voters in the district recently passed a vote that would pay for a new artificial turf field, tennis courts and improvements to the baseball and softball diamonds. The total price tag for that project, which also includes significant improvements to Doyle Middle School, is a cool $56.36 million. That move would certainly be reconsidered in light of new developments, one would think.

After all, what good is a turf field at Troy High one quarter mile away from RPI's brand-new East Campus Stadium if the Flying Horses won't even field any teams in 2011?

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I'll leave it to you in the comments, but here are a few questions to spark the discussion.

If Troy cut sports entirely, wouldn't that just cut into the school's already declining enrollment even more? That, ultimately, is what underlies this issue to begin with as a shrinking tax base can't cover a traditional standard of expenses.

With La Salle, Catholic Central and Emma Willard as private options in the city and public schools such as Lansingburgh, Tamarac, Watervliet and Cohoes not very far away, wouldn't students who really wanted to play high school sports find a way to transfer to these schools?

Could Troy combine programs with Tamarac or Lansingburgh to save money?

It will certainly be an interesting battle for all those involved over the next week.