Fees may be going up for students who take part in afterschool activities at the schools, as well as for the early morning gym program.
There was discussion of the fee hikes at Monday night’s school committee meeting, but no final vote was taken on the fee structure for the programs.
“Some of the fees are going up, but that has not ever been part of the schools’ budget,” said committee member Julie Barry. “They have always been paid for through the fees themselves or through ESSER (Covid relief) funds. Since the ESSER are no longer, we want to make sure that we are able to pay for the staff to supervise during these activities.”
Barry said it is the afterschool activities at the Arthur T. Cummings School that will be most impacted, along with the morning gym time.
Previously, the morning gym time from 7:15 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. at the ATC was $125, and Barry said the proposal is to increase it to $225 for the full year if it is paid for all at once, or $125 per half year.
“The afterschool programs were $125 for an activity for the year, and we are changing the structure to be how many days per week,” said Barry. “It will also increase the number of our activities that our different students can participate in; if Lego Club is on Tuesday and theater is on Friday, you can pay by activity.”
The proposed fee structure is $150 per year for one day per week, $250 for two days, $325 for three days, $400 for four days, and $475 for five days. There will also be needs-based scholarships for families who have difficulty paying the fees.
Superintendent of Schools Lisa Howard said the fee structure covers the cost of the staff running the activities as well as materials and supplies for the students.
“We’ve certainly never made any money off of it and have been using grant funding that is no longer available because the grant itself ended,” said Howard. “The student enrollment has gotten so big that we can’t do it with one teacher per activity so we will work that out based on the activity and the fee structure of the students who need a scholarship.”