The ConVal school board voted to waive athletic fees for the entire school year.
The athletic fee waiver went into effect in the spring of 2015 as a way to gauge its effect on participation. The fees were supposed to be reinstated last school year, although the school board voted to sunset the fees for another school year at a meeting last October.
ConVal Athletic Director Mark Swasey told the board at a regular meeting on Tuesday night that participation has increased since the waiver was implemented. He said participation in fall sports has jumped about 6 percent from the 2013/2014 school year. Winter and spring sports saw a “big jump” the first year that the waiver went into effect and has remained fairly flat ever since.
“The key is to look at the percentages because as enrollment has declined, our numbers have actually stayed fairly steady and have increased in some respects,” Swasey said.
Swasey recommended keeping the waiver in place.
Wiping out athletic fees comes with a price tag of about $45,000 per year for the district.
Vice chair Rich Cahoon suggested it look closely at fees across the board. He said he would like to see a figure of how much it would cost the district every year to waive all fees, not just athletic ones.
If the district has the financial means to waive all fees, he said they should. If they don’t, then he said they should reassess how that money is being spent.
“My fear, and I think the way I put it in the ed (education) committee several times, is we’re waving participation fees for the children of doctors and lawyers and we may have socio economic disadvantaged students who aren’t participating in other programming because we still have fees,” Cahoon said. “And I would really like to get a handle on that.”
As an example, Cahoon said the district could cover the cost of 500 advanced placement tests with the money it currently spends on athletics.
But fall sports have already started at ConVal and the district didn’t collect any fees. The board decided on Tuesday evening that they can’t ask people to pay now that the season has begun.
“I don’t think you could say to people, kids that are on the soccer team in order to stay on you have to pay $75,” Cahoon said. “I feel like you have to waive them again for the fall.”
The board decided to waive fees for fall sports. It also made a motion to waive the fees for winter and spring sports while it continues to collect information.
The discussion will be tossed to the Education Committee and will be revisited at an upcoming select board meeting.
A vacant school board seat in Peterborough has been publically posted. So far, the district has received two responses to the posting, although the application deadline is open through Aug. 31.
Once the period closes, Peterborough school board members will interview the candidates and appoint a member who will serve until the next town election.
Abby Kessler can be reached at 924-7172, ext. 234 or akessler@ledgertranscript.com.