With cold weather approaching, many students have begun to break out winter clothes, however, those students who have not earned a letterman will have to find an alternative way to stay warm.

As of this year Mansfield Independent School District will no longer pay for student letter jackets because of recent budget cuts.

“Well it’s just a matter of finances,“ Principal David Wright said. “Tough decisions had to be made that nobody wanted to make. It’s just the reality of the situation.”

The state cut 13 million dollars in funding for MISD this school year.

“They worked really hard to try to make sure that campus instructional budgets were not cut,” Wright said. “They kept everything they absolutely had to and then went from there.”

Every department across the district was required to reduce their budget by 10 percent, which equated $150,000 for the fine arts department.

“Basically every department’s budget got cut,” Wright said. “They had to decide what to cut that would impact student instruction the least. If you think about it it wouldn’t make any sense to keep letter jackets but force football players to pay for their own helmets and band students to pay for their own instruments.”

Last year students who purchased letter jackets payed for everything except for the letter and the jacket itself. This year students will pay for the entire jacket including patches and any embroidering.

“I wish we could have continued to pay for letter jackets because it’s a long kind of standing tradition that goes way back, but it was necessary,” Wright said.