Schools

Student Fees Reduced $40 for D122

Administrators originally recommended a $50 decrease in October, but Supt. Mike Sass said some budgetary issues that have come up since then led him to recommend lowering that figure slightly.

will reduce registration fees by $40 per student for the coming academic year.

Administrators originally recommended a $50 decrease in October, but Supt. Mike Sass said some budgetary issues that have come up since then led him to recommend lowering that figure slightly.

"Since that time there’s been some things that haven’t been so healthy for us as a district with state funding," Sass said.

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Members Deb Kedzior and Kathy Miller were concerned with reducing fees because of the perception of commitment it could cause. Kedzior recommended the board commit to one year of reducing fees $20, but the district never planned to extend the reductions beyond one year.

"I don’t want to open the door to something that this is an expectation," Miller said.

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Right now, parents pay between $275 and $285 per student. The $40 per-student reduction will result in about $180,000 of lost revenue for the district. But administrators assured the board they felt comfortable taking that hit.

"I have confidence in administration that they will figure it out without reducing any aides or staff," board member Sue Smith said.

Smith first proposed reducing fees by $50 per student, but that failed in a 4-3 vote, with Kedzior and Miller voting against it along with Nick DiSandro and Sue Gillooley.

"I understand the board wants to do $50," DiSandro said. "But I’m trying to listen to the district as well with their nervousness."

Administrators again assured the board that a $40 reduction would work within the budget, so another vote was taken and that amount passed unanimously. Member Pat Martino said he thinks a larger reduction could have been made.

"We can’t just sit here and say we’re living in our means, because the impression in the community is we’re not," he said. "They need to live within their means, too. The only expectations people care about now are today’s. We need to help people now."


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