STORY SUMMARY>>>

The Board of Education is prepared to cut $1 million dollars in coaches’ salaries during a meeting Thursday night at Waipahu Intermediate.

The proposed cut is part of a plan to trim $9.2 million in discretionary spending because of Hawaii’s slowing economy.

"When the cut is made the actual decisions as to what specifically will have to be eliminated if anything will be made at the school level," said Donna Ikeda, the BOE chair.

Critics of the plan say cutting 7.6% of the $13 million athletic budget for public schools could result in the elimination of some junior varsity sports.

"If the schools are forced to cut a million dollars from their collective budget than there's a strong possibility that JV sports would be cut,” says Keith Amemiya, executive director for the Hawaii High School Athletics Association.

“It would impact thousands of kids and several hundred if not a couple thousand teams."

Bobby Grey, who coaches McKinley High School’s varsity and junior varsity football teams say the importance of athletics to the development of a young person cannot be underestimated.

"A lot of those kids the reason why they're going to graduate this year is because they participated in JV football and JV athletics," said Grey. “A lot of them wouldn't be doing the right thing if they weren't in athletics.”

Ikeda says she’s primarily concerned with delivering a good education to public high school students but admits there are no easy choices during a downturn in the economy.

"Every program has it merits,” she said. “The tough call comes when you have to cut - what do you eliminate?"

Andrew may be reached at apereira@khon2.com or ph. 591-4263.