$25 Activities Fee for Clubs and Sports Remains

Though the final details have yet to be worked out, the $25 activities fee that will be levied on all middle and high schools students participating in a sport, club or other school extracurricular activity is expected to stand for the coming school year, Bethlehem Area School Board members said Monday evening.

Director of Student Services Dean Donaher said the practical details of how the fee would be collected are still being worked out, but likely a member of each school's administrative office would be put in charge of overseeing the collection and crediting of fees.

The $25 fee would be paid only once, regardless of how many activities a student partakes in.

Economically disadvantaged students will be able to apply for a waiver from the charge, Donaher said, though the former plan of basing eligibility on those participating in the free/reduced school lunch program has been scrapped, he said.

Donaher said an automatic waiver based on the lunch program would mean students who are exempt from the fee would also be exempt from being required to fundraise for the groups they participate in.

That would not only be unfair to other students who may be required to fundraise as part of their membership, but could hinder fundraising efforts overall, if a sport or club had a significant number of exempt students, Donaher noted.

“There will be a process for a waiver,” he said. “Free and reduced lunch just wouldn't be the criteria.”

While the fees would be collected and administered separately at each of the four middle schools and two high schools, the criteria will be standardized, he said.

Clubs, in addition to sports teams, will be required to generate rosters of their members, to be submitted to the school office so it can be determined who still needs to pay an activity fee, hopefully ensuring confidentiality for economically disadvantaged students.

“The coach would be informed only who (still) needs to pay or doesn't,” Donaher said.

BASD board member Irene Follweiler noted the plan needs to be finalized quickly.

“The teams sign up in July,” she said. “We need a policy in place very fast.”

Donaher said the fees won't be collected until September. When team and club rosters are finalized, the students will have 14 days to turn in their fees.

Meanwhile, signups, tryouts and early practices will not be affected, and students will not be charged for participating in these, he said.

The fee offsets $50,000 of related expenses in the 2011-12 budget. Unless that money can be found somewhere else in the budget, the fee will stand for the coming school year.

“It stays in the budget until there's (administration) recommendations otherwise,” board members said.