This is our school district. It's a hot topic right now. Not mentioned in the clip is the fact that the current plan is a sliding scale. So, if students qualify for reduced or free lunches the "pay to play" fees will be adjusted also.
When I was in school we paid $5 per sport, with a family maximum of $25/year. There were no fees for band, choir, drama, etc. However, when I cheered we each had to come up with several hundred dollars for our camp and uniforms. Most of it was covered by fundraisers that spanned the summer.
To be honest, I don't have a big problem with the "pay to play" idea. I'd really just like to see our teachers get their jobs back.
Is your school district facing these problems? How are they handling it?
P.S. The big budget problem stems from the fact that the school budget is part of the city budget. And the mayor gets to vote to break ties on the school board....and any time we get some school money the mayor reduces the school budget by that amount and turns that money over to the city operating budget. And he refuses to raise taxes because he has "bigger" political plans and wants to be able to say he never raised taxes (the math was done and it was found that the average homeowner would only have to pay $12 more in taxes each month to fix the budget). But this post isn't about that, so I'll stop before I really get going.
1 comment:
I was always kind of irritated the way Manchester's mayor had a vote on the city council. It seems like a huge conflict of interest to me.
The kids here have to pay to play, but it varies with the sport. I haven't gotten the fee list for this school year, yet, but they said they were trying to keep the costs the same as last year. That means track is about $60 to play, basketball and volleyball were both over $200 to play. Cheer leading was something like $600 last year. They do have fund raisers to cover that, but the player and their family is responsible for any amount that they don't raise. (I just have to tell you that spell check told me I spelled Cheerleading wrong and changed it to cheeseparing!)
Those fees are on top of the fees you pay for science labs, books, music, etc. which all start in 7th grade. There is also a flat fee they charge every student who goes to school of around $100. Going off of last years fees (including the cost of a yearbook for 3 kids and this year driver's ed- $140- for Erica in that, I should add) we're looking at somewhere around $600 to get the 3 older kids registered and started in school, but not play anything. The Jr. high doesn't have school sports, so those fees won't kick in for the boys, yet, if they choose to play.
There is some sort of sliding scale where all or some of your fees are waved if you qualify for free or reduced lunch, but I don't know the details there. We should be getting all this paperwork in the mail in the next week or so.
You know, the dumb thing is that even with all the fees, our school district is still facing a huge budget deficit. They removed 1/2 of the light bulbs last year to save money on electricity and cut back on custodial and maintenance. They were talking about closing our neighborhood elementary school, but put it on hold for another year. Part of the problem may lie with the State distribution of money, but I'm not entirely sure. Othrwise, is it just poor planning on the school budget or is it that revenues are down? The whole thing is just crazy, though.
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