NORTHBOROUGH – The Public Schools of Northborough and Southborough is proposing to reduce Algonquin Regional High School student activity fees to $25 per student next year.
The student activity fees will then be eliminated by the 2024 fiscal year, according to a presentation by Superintendent Greg Martineau to the Regional School Committee earlier this month.
Martineau originally presented this plan during the committee’s discussion of the budget Dec. 15 meeting. He then presented it again on Jan. 19.
District considers eliminating activity fees
Discussion of activity fees takes place in the context of the school district’s ongoing budget process.
The most recent iteration of the FY23 regional budget totals $25.7 million, which is a three percent increase over the FY22 budget.
According to Martineau, the operational budget subcommittee recently met to discuss whether it was possible to reduce some of the student fee structure.
“Fees have been a part of Algonquin Regional High School for many years,” Martineau said.
The regional committee indeed approved the fees in 2012 as a part of then-Superintendent Charles Gobron’s budget recommendations.
In March of last year, though, the district received a parent-initiated complaint through the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Martineau said at the time that the district was in the process of remediating any issues. He added that the district was working on a plan to reduce student fees.
District also examining athletic fees
This year, student activity fees cost $50 per student. Those fees are generating a total of $36,500 in revenue, according to Martineau’s presentation.
Martineau said the operational budget subcommittee examined parking, athletic and student activity fees.
The subcommittee recommended eventually eliminating the fees over two years.
“You can’t see me smiling through the mask,” said Regional School Committee member Daniel Kolenda when this matter was presented in December.
In January, Kolenda asked Martineau if the district considered a similar plan for the student parking fee.
“People need to park. It’s asphalt. You have to maintain the asphalt regardless if there’s one car on there,” Kolenda said. “I guess if you put all the cars on there, we have to maintain it a little more often, but it’s asphalt.”
“People still have a choice to take free transportation — busing — or drive to school,” Martineau said.
Martineau said the subcommittee was “very interested” in looking at reducing athletic fees, though.
“We don’t want the fee to be a barrier to participating in athletics,” Martineau said.
Kolenda suggested that the district examine if it could implement a modest decline in all fees to show parents that they are reducing those costs.
