Hawai'i public schools will have a total of $800,000 cut from the Department of Education's athletic budgets for the school years 2009-10 and 2010-11, Superintendent Pat Hamamoto announced yesterday.

Various athletic programs will cut costs from administration, supplies and equipment, and transportation. They plan to "adjust sporting event schedules in order to reduce operating costs by scheduling multiple games on the same day with multiple schools," according to the DOE budget proposal.

Hamamoto said the executive directors in each of Hawai'i's leagues that include public schools — the O'ahu Interscholastic Association, Big Island Interscholastic Federation, Maui Interscholastic League and Kaua'i Interscholastic Federation — approached the DOE with the proposed cuts, in anticipation of being hit by the DOE's 10 percent overall budget cut mandated by Gov. Linda Lingle's request of all state agencies to trim costs.

That put the DOE in a position to cut about $69 million for 2009-10 and 2010-11.

"I'm very proud of (the executive directors), because if we're going to do this and we're going to get through the crisis, and we're going to get through this budget reduction in the next couple of years, then we have to work together and we have to pull together and we have to focus on teaching and learning and what we need to do that's a priority," Hamamoto said. "So, we appreciate what (they) did."

One DOE proposal this past summer would have effectively eliminated junior varsity sports, but in August the Board of Education voted 7-4 in favor of a motion to exclude athletics from budget cut consideration.

Hamamoto said the DOE had to cut $9 million from its 2009-10 budget and some programs were affected, but "it was very clear from the community input" that eliminating JV sports "was clearly not something the community would want. So the board asked us to go back and make the switches and changes."

Although athletics survived that budget axe, on Sept. 12 Lingle requested all state agencies to come up with 10 percent, 15 percent and 20 percent budget cut scenarios for the 2009-2011 biennial budget.

"As we were going through this process, we informed all of our people in the past few days that these are the different programs ... and our athletic leagues — the four (executive directors) came together and realized, 'Hey, we are a part of a team here,' " Hamamoto said. "I'm really proud of (them), they said, 'You know, we've got $800,000 — tight — but $800,000 that we'd like to add.' "

Although the DOE's athletic budget makes up only a small portion of the department's overall budget, Hamamoto said every effort to reduce costs helps.

"That's why we have ... a lot of programs that are not large in dollar amount ... they are willing to put on the table — to help us out — $800,000," Hamamoto said.

The total amount proposed for reduction includes $372,212 for transportation, $372,212 for supplies and equipment and $45,576 for one athletic trainer position. The trainer position that will be cut is a vacant position at one school with two positions for an athletic trainer.

The school was not identified, but Wai'anae athletic director Glenn Tokunaga told The Advertiser last night he has had a vacant second trainer position open since Sept. 15.

He said there are about 600 athletes in his program and the trainers attended to more than a thousand injuries throughout the school year.

"We were one of the first schools to get a second trainer," Tokunaga said. "It would be really tough (with only one)."

With its remote location near the end of O'ahu's Leeward Coast, Wai'anae also would likely be affected significantly by cuts to the transportation budget.

"(Bus companies) charge by distance, so our transportation costs are a lot more than other schools even though the allocation is the same," he said. "Usually our transportation money runs out after the winter season, and then we have to tap into our revenue allocation from the OIA."

But Tokunaga said even that amount has been cut almost in half during the past year.

"We try to do fundraisers, but it's tough because everybody seems tapped out," he said.