Story posted Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Credit Card Fee Sparks Debate
By TOM ROBB Journal & Topics Reporter
Glenbrook High School Dist. 225 administrators imposed a $2.50 credit card user fee for online and in-person transactions in the district at the start of the spring semester last month and did it without notifying the school board as required.
Dist. 225 board members discussed the new fee at their meeting Monday night.
Board members took an informal poll after considerable discussion and agreed to leave the new fee in place though some had reservations.
"I have a problem with this," said board member Robert Boron. "We hit 95% of our families with a ($100) parking fee increase, towel and materials fees and a $79,000 bus subsidy (in other fees approved at Monday's meeting). We are nickeling and diming our families up and down. This should have been brought to the board before it was done."
The credit card fee will stay in place for now. District lawyers will be consulted before a formal vote on keeping the fee is taken at the school board's meeting in early March.
Credit card fees cost the district $80,000 in fiscal year 2009 and are expected to cost $86,000 in fiscal year 2010.
An issue that also arose was whether the board can approve an action of the administration retroactively or if the district would need to refund fees already collected.
Board member Monica Regalbuto suggested that since the fee was charged "incorrectly," it should be refunded.
Other school board members rejected that idea agreeing to continue charging the fee concluding that refunds would be difficult and time consuming. They said if the school board's lawyers felt a retroactive approval would be legal refunds would not be necessary.
"Do we want to go back and have egg on our face before we go back and do it again?" asked board member Scott Martin on issuing refunds.
After the meeting Boron told the Glenview Journal that if the district does have to pay refunds, it has enough cash on hand.
Some board members such as Joel Taub support the new fee.
"Eighty thousand dollars, that's one new teacher," said Taub arguing the district needs the money.
Conservative estimates by the district say reserve funds could dip below the required 33% in five years.
Taub argued people have the option to avoid paying the credit card fee by paying school fees by cash or check and said credit cards offer bonuses to users such as airline points.
Almost half of the card fees come from food purchased from Quest, the outside company running the district's cafeterias.
To compensate the district for paying the credit card charges, Quest provides free and reduced lunches to low income students at no cost to the district. District officials say the free meals do not quite cover the credit card fees.
Fees are based on the number of transactions and a percentage of the value making smaller transactions particularly expensive.
District officials said students loading their lunch cards with a value of $20 at a time can be much more costly than if they loaded $100 at a time.
At Monday's meeting other revenue sources such as limited naming rights and selling of other advertising were discussed.
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