Activity Fee

A lot of confusion surrounds the proposed activity fee for the coming academic year, so I thought I'd gather all the threads I've heard and list them here. As of today (Tuesday, March 20th, 2007), I have not been able to find any firm numbers around this proposed fee.

What do we know?

We know that the school board is planning on assessing what they refer to as Parental charges for participation in activities and athletics.

We know that the proposed fee is a one-time fee charged per year.

We know that some activities will be free, while others will require payment.

We know that this will only impact students at the middle school and high school.

We know that there will be some provision to accomodate those who can document they can't afford the Activity Fee.

How do we know the above? These have been the consistent elements of numerous discussions held recently around the district introducing the proposed/tentative budget for 2007-2008.

What we don't know

How much will the Activity Fee be?

How much money is the fee expected to generate per year?

Where will the monies collected be applied to the budget?

What activities will require payment?

Will any new activities be provided, now that parents are being asked to fund activities?

What will happen if there is an insufficient number of students that are interested in a particular activity - will it be cancelled?

It's easy to pick apart a plan that is still being developed, but this is the situation the school board has put us in. The budget has been in development since November of last year, it is frustrating that so few details are available about this part of proposed budget at this late date.

It is my opinion that this fee is little more than a ploy by the school board to placate certain groups of voters who traditionally vote NO on the school budget each year, to demonstrate that the board is reigning in extra-curricular activity costs by asking parents to fund these activities, at least partially.

Bottom Line

I fear that this attempt to placate certain groups of voters will, in reality, cause more confusion and frustration with the school board by a number of local voters, and when voters are confused or frustrated, I believe they will be inclined to vote NO on the budget, because it is their one chance each year to vote on the performance of the school board despite the effect a failed vote will have on the school district.

I believe most parents will agree to pay the fees, but this issue won't raise their interest in the school budget election enough to cause them to actually go out and vote for the budget. As witnessed by last year's vote, as few as four hundred voters can overturn a proposed budget and toss the school district into confusion as it attempts to recover from that defeat and formulate a new smaller budget and plan for the coming school year.

I wish the school board would drop the activity fee immediately, come up with a real plan for implementing an activity fee in 2008-2009 school year, and take the coming school year to consider how the activity fee could fund not only existing activities, but also fund new activites previously impossible to offer, due to budget constraints. If the parents are funding activities, the school can offer activities previously not possible, and it could provide funds to enrich those activities.

You know what would be a really interesting idea? The School Board should develop a purely Voulntary Fund to collect an activity contribution to improve current activities above and beyond the funding provided by the proposed 2007-2008 budget. Parents could choose to contribute or not, and participation in activities would be open to all, if they have contributed or not.