Frisco ISD has dropped the “Pay-to-Play” athletic fee for the 2019-2020 school year, required for all sports in 2018-2019, after receiving an additional $25.2 million in state funding after the passage and approval of Texas HB3. 

“It’s great, I think that the district and the planning committee, that they took into account parents and coaches and other people and took that into account when they were putting together the budget,” head volleyball coach Ui Womble said. “Then also the changes that took place in school finance have really benefited FISD so I applaud the district for finding ways to allot that money so that it doesn’t come directly out of our parents and athletes pockets.”

Womble foresees no issues with the change, and believes that the athletics program will not lose any amenities despite the loss in revenue provided by Pay-to-Play. 

“The district has done a really good job of looking ahead, in that there aren’t any deficits,” Womble said. “If it was going to be a situation where we would lose stuff, equipment of facilities or whatever, I think they wouldn’t have done it. I think that we won’t see a change, and students won’t see a change on anything that happened from a budget standpoint in athletics.”

Father of four athletic students in the district, Brad Nelson, says his family was not directly affected by the change, but he hopes that it will help out families that did struggle with the fee. 

“I have 4 students [in athletics], one at Liberty, 3 at Vandeventer, but we’ve had no impact because of the fee,” Nelson said. “I do think that every family situation is different, and for some families this probably helped with the elimination of that, especially with families, I think, that have one or more child, and multiple kids, and it probably does help in that situation.”

Another Frisco ISD parent Brandi Darrow, is thankful for the change, and the opportunity to allocate that money elsewhere. 

“It was a little stressful coming up with all that money at the beginning of the school year, but now I really like that it feels the playing field, so that all kids can participate,” Darrow said. “It’s great because then we can put that money towards the booster club we want to be a part of, support the coaches more, put money into the scholarships, so it’s a great way to use the money instead.