Committee votes on fee reduction options
By Melissa Muntz Community Reporter

Shrewsbury - The Shrewsbury School Committee has voted to eliminate all activity fees and fifth-grade music lesson fees and reduce athletic and transportation fees, if voters approve a $1.5 million override in May.

Included in the $1.5 million is $500,000 that will be earmarked for school fee reductions.

Shrewsbury parents currently pay a $210 transportation fee, a $290 fee for each high school sport per season, a $50 activity fee at the middle school level and a $100 activity fee at the high school level.

The committee had been considering two fee reduction options. Option 1 would drop the transportation fee to $175 with a family cap of $350 and would eliminate all athletic fees, activity fees and fees for music lessons at the fifth-grade level.

Option 2 would cut the transportation fee even more, to $135 with a family cap of $270, reduce the athletic fee to $160 per sport with a family cap of $480 and eliminate all activity fees and music lesson fees for fifthgraders.

The committee voted, 4-1, in favor of option 2 after hearing from families across the district, including those with high school children, that they'd like to see a fee reduction that the entire community could benefit from.

"Option 2 benefits K to 12, not just nine to 12, and what I've heard overwhelmingly from parents is that they favor option 2," Erin Canzano said.

Committee members said that many of the people they spoke with also had concerns that completely eliminating the athletic fee may have detrimental effects in the future.

"I'm disappointed to be keeping the athletic fee, but I think that there's wisdom in that it could protect us in the future," Chair Deborah Peeples said.

The lone dissenting opinion was cast by Mark Murray, who said he believed it would be in the district's best interest to eliminate as many fees as possible.

"Instituting athletic and activity fees is probably the most difficult and worst decision I've been forced to make … and it has been a decision I have deeply regretted," he said. "We now are faced with the unique opportunity to right a wrong."

Although the rest of the committee agreed that the fees are a bad way for the schools to do business, they were happy that the fees could at least be reduced by enough to put them more in line with what surrounding districts are charging for services.