The Consolidated High School District 230 board has voted to keep its summer school fees the same as they’ve been the past several years, but the news didn’t please everyone.
Prior to the Jan. 26 vote, Palos Park resident Bob Shelstrom argued that there should be no cost to district students because they wouldn’t be charged for taking the same classes during the regular school year.
“If a student takes algebra I, it’s the same class as in the fall or the spring or winter,” Shelstrom said. “It’s that same service provided by the district. It’s the same expenses – or less. There is really no need to be charging fees.”
After the vote, Steve Langert, assistant superintendent for business services, said most districts that offer summer school classes charge fees. He says it’s been standard practice for the past 25 years.
Langert said that District 230 charges the fees to “somewhat break even” with the cost of direct teachers salaries. He said the district does not factor in costs of electricity, building overhead or administrative costs. He added the summer school fees have remained constant for the past eight years.
Board member Carol Baker said running summer classes is “fairly costly to us” and said that the driver’s education fee of $150 for district students and $250 for non-residents is “extremely low.”
Most classroom courses are $150 per session for district students and $250 for non-residents. The FAST programs for reading skills and successful students are $75. Enrichment class fees vary by class.
Shuttle services from Andrew and Stagg High Schools to Sandburg are $25.
Regarding whether the district can afford to eliminate fees, since 2005 enrollment is down by over 700 students. District operating costs are about $13,500 per student, but becasue of fixed costs and the 15% of operating expenses lost from State and Federal funding due to enrollment drop, only about $8,100 per student are the potential savings.
That means that the district should have been able to save about $5.7 million every year due to lower enrollment. Using $2 million of those savings to provide relief to hard pressed families doesn’t seem too much to ask, but apparently the school union and Board disagree.
A little over a year ago I was allowed to participate in the Building and Finance committee. When this issue of enrollment drop was reported, I asked how we could use the “dropping enrollment dividend” to eliminate fees on families and redirecte resources to better improve our rather poor ACT scores. Currently, the distirct charges families $350/student to take remidial ACT prep classes to make up for instructional deficiencies in the district.
After asking that question, Mr O’Sullivan would no longer allow me to participate on the committee.
I guess protecting families and speaking for student interests is a “forbidden subject” in 230!
In fact, summer school classes cost MUCH less than during fall and winter, and district 230 punishes familes for this.
Teachers are paid a fixed salary for a summer school class, about $3,000.
No extra fringe benefits are associated with this pay.
Average teacher salaries in 230 are about $84,000 (plus an additional $17,000 in fringe benefits) for teaching 10 classes, so the teacher cost to the district for exactly the same class given in Fall or Spring is about $10,100.
That means the district SAVES about $7,100 for each class given in the summer.
Clearly, charging families an additonal fee of $3,000 overall for a class that saves the distirct $7,100 places the district 230 Board and administration in the same profiteering and unfairness class as Bank of America and JP Morgan/Chase.
What was truly telling was that not ONE of the board members asked the simple question, “Can the district afford to eliminate this fee?” It didn’t matter to Board members Nogal, Quilty, O’Sullivan, Murphy, Baker, and Hastings. They just wanted your money no matter how unfair or how it burdened families. Remember that the next time they ask for your vote or political contributions!