Story posted Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Dist. 225 Student Fee Increases Approved
By TOM ROBB Journal & Topics Reporter
More student fees will increase than decrease in Glenbrook South High School next year. Dist. 225 school board members debated school fees and creating other revenue streams at their meeting Monday night.
Also discussed was the possibility of granting corporate naming rights and giving limited advertising space within district facilities.
The two fee changes with the most impact and most debated at last Monday night's meeting when they were approved was a $100 increase in driver's education, pushing it to $350 for the full class including driving instruction and classroom time, and a change in bus fees.
Driver's education waivers for low-income students are available from building principal's offices.
The basic bus fee will stay unchanged but families with more than one student attending South will benefit from a 50% reduction in rates from siblings of a first rider. The new fee would see one student charged a full rate and all their siblings charged half off the regular bus rate.
Parking stickers will increase by 6%, or $15 next year. Towel and material fees of $25 per student that were eliminated last year as a concession to difficult economic conditions will be reinstated in the 2010-2011 school year.
A new $2.50 credit card user fee was established last month without school board approval. School administration officials acknowledged they should have sought board approval before instituting the fee.
District lawyers are being consulted and a vote on the credit card fees is expected early next month.
The transportation and driver's education fees were the most hotly debated among board members at Monday's meeting, some feeling the increase in driver's education was too high while the transportation fee amounted to a subsidy of the program that could not be afforded in a difficult economic environment.
In an effort to consider other sources of revenue, school board members instructed Supt. Mike Riggle to draft a policy to make limited advertising space available to corporations and to consider corporate naming rights.
Board members said advertising should stay out of the classrooms and hallways of the school buildings and should not target students. Space at athletic fields or other areas where the public frequently gathers would not be as objectionable, they said.
Contracts for corporate ads or naming rights would also be limited requiring frequent renewals. One board member said, "Does anyone remember Enron Field" referring to the disgraced telecommunications giant that sponsored a major sports team.
Any sponsorship agreements would need full school board approval before they could be executed.
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