Glen Rock School BOE Removes Activity Fee Cap

The Glen Rock school board on Monday voted to eliminate the cap on student activity fees .

Pushed as a way to in 2011-2012, the fee cost families $200 per high school student and $100 per middle school student, with a cap at $400 per family.

The activities cover both sports and extracurriculars (like marching band) and netted the district about $150,000 in revenue in 2011-2012.

Though the fees remain in place, the cap is gone after the Monday night school board vote.

"We removed the family cap that we instituted last year so now anybody that participates pays," board president Rona McNAbola said Tuesday. "In the beginning of the year we had a lot of complaints that the family cap was not fair; now it's pay-to-play."

Families with multiple students in the middle school and/or high school will pay the full rate – $200 per high school student; $100 per middle school student – regardless of how many students they have participating.

There will still be waivers for those that can demonstrate hardships, officials said.

The district is again budgeting $150,000 in revenue for the upcoming school year, McNabola said.

With a better-than-expected financial forecast, district officials in April and no cuts in programming or staff.

The Glen Rock Gazette reported Trustee Sanjiv Ohri found the district's better fiscal picture means the fees and cap are now unnecessary, calling it "discriminatory" to the public.

Taxes "never go away once introduced," Ohri said, according to the report. "We are always finding new ways to tax ourselves."

The school board in the last year has .

Preliminary ideas include renting school facilities, bringing in out-of-district students, and setting up summer academies.

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