Dist. 203 makes fee decisions

Families of Naperville Unit District 203 athletes and musicians will see an approximate 8 percent increase in their fees next year, but general registration fees will remain the same.

Board members approved the increase to optional fees Tuesday while declining to increase the general school fees, paid by all students, that range from $34 and a $12 technology fee for preschool and kindergarten to $81 plus a $29 technology fee for high school students.

Increases to both groups of fees were recommended by Finance Director Dave Zager, but board members said it was fair to increase the optional fees but did not believe the time was right to hit parents with both increases.

“I have qualms about the general fees in general. I cannot at this point, given that we do have a healthy budget, support an increase in general fees since they are mandatory as opposed to the optional ones,” said Board President Mike Jaensch,

Board Member Suzyn Price said she agrees that parents should be paying more for education but she also believes the district can live without the general fee increase. She did support the optional fee increase.

“I do think if there isn’t an overwhelming demand for this increase as far as our general required fees I think that’s something we may want to put off for now,” Price said. “If there isn’t a crying need for it I think we’re asking for increases from parents in a lot of other places.”

Board member Dave Weeks and Jim Dennison were the only two board members to support increases to both sets of fees.

“I’m not sure it’s unreasonable to expect them to keep the share that we assigned at one point,” Weeks said. “When you register for school you have fees. It’s called raising children.”

Moving forward without the increase in general fees, Zager said, will mean looking to other areas of the budget to find the $170,000 the fees would have brought in.

A committee formed to examine the methods used to establish fees and research the costs that fees are intended to offset recommended the district increase general fees paid by all students by an average of 10 percent to ensure fees would be set at a level that would offset costs that have increased over the past 10 years.

The biggest hit the district has seen, Zager said, was the state’s elimination of the Textbook Loan program that supplied about $250,000 of textbooks each year.

The optional fees charged primarily to high school students participating in activities and athletics will jump about 8 percent to eventually offset 20 percent to 25 percent of the cost to provide the sport or activity, including supplying officials, coaches and equipment.

Zager said the district’s booster clubs’ fundraising efforts have been subsidizing the budget in recent years rather than going toward “bigger ticket items.”

Jaensch said he hopes the board has a philosophical discussion about the need for any general fees at a future meeting.