Geneva schools to charge technology fee in the fall
Geneva students will be charged a technology service fee next school year under a plan approved by the school board Monday.
The fee will depend on what computer they are using. Kindergartners and first-graders, who use iPad tablets, will pay $20. Second-graders will pay $30, and third- through fifth-graders $40.
Grades sixth through 12 will pay $45 a year. They are assigned Windows-based laptop computers. This past year, for example, sixth-graders were assigned Lenovo ThinkPad convertible laptops.
A $45 insurance fee for sixth- through 12th-graders will be discontinued. Those students take home their devices, which are considered more rugged.
The board also raised the prices for student lunches, and changed or implemented fees for some courses.
The lower-grade lunch fee will increase a little more than 7 percent to $2.25 per lunch. The high school lunch fee rises to $2.50. The food program is running a $44,251 deficit through the end of February, according to a memo to the board.
"I just want to acknowledge we are aware this comes with a cost to families," board member Mary Stith said of the technology fee. She said trustees took seriously maintaining a balance between costs to users of the laptops and costs to taxpayers.
The base fees, then, to send a child to elementary school will range from $115 to $135, $196 for middle school and $285 for high school.