The Abbotsford Board of Education is chipping in some cash in an effort to keep the high school sports scene in good form.

Trustees voted on Monday to contribute $3,000 to B.C. School Sports after the provincial government radically chopped the organization’s budget in July.

BCSS, which oversees high school regional and provincial competitions with the assistance of sports commissions, is scrambling to raise funds after the province pulled a $130,000 operating grant – roughly 30 per cent of the organization’s operating revenue of just under $500,000.

The organization appealed to school districts with populations over 10,000, such as Abbotsford, to contribute $3,000 each. Smaller districts will be requested to pay $1,500 to keep the organization running until the end of the year.

Students may also have to pay higher athletic fees, BCSS executive director Sue Keenan said.

“We are tacking on additional administration fees and we’ve gone back to superintendents and districts and we’re saying, ‘look where we’re at, we are desperate,’” she said.

Abbotsford board chair Cindy Schafer said the contribution is an interim measure.

“It was the will of the board we should support them at this time,” said Schafer. “We wanted to give our support because we have valued the work of B.C. School Sports and we have a lot of teams in Abbotsford.”

The organization, which oversees sports such as basketball, football, soccer, rugby, and golf, may have to look at scaling back some inter-school competitions to stay afloat, said Keenan.

The future of the organization will be determined at their general meeting on Oct. 24.

BCSS organizes 47 provincial sports championships each year, and the funding cuts are likely to affect as many as 100,000 student athletes, according to the organization.