Westport schools vote to reduce some student fees

Posted 7/26/17

At its fourth meeting on the subject, the School Committee has agreed on several student fee reductions and a hike in school lunch costs for younger grades.

At its July 10 meeting, the committee …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Register to post events


If you'd like to post an event to our calendar, you can create a free account by clicking here.

Note that free accounts do not have access to our subscriber-only content.

Day pass subscribers

Are you a day pass subscriber who needs to log in? Click here to continue.


Westport schools vote to reduce some student fees

Posted

At its fourth meeting on the subject, the School Committee has agreed on several student fee reductions and a hike in school lunch costs for younger grades.

At its July 10 meeting, the committee voted to raise the school lunch price for youngsters in Kindergarten through grade 6 from $2.75 to $3. The recommendation to do so came after it was learned that the amount Westport charges students at the elementary and Macomber schools is less than a formula set by the state Department of Elementary & Secondary Education.

Other fees were reduced or remained the same …

• The student parking fee was reduced from

• The student athletic fee was reduced from $250 to $175.

• The cheerleading fee was reduced from $175 to $125. The superintendent had recommended dropping that fee by $25 to $150, but School Committee member Carolina Africano said she believed it should be reduced by the same $75 amount as most other athletic fees.

“They don’t get transportation … they basically get nothing” for their fee, Ms. Africano said.

That’s not quite true, committee member Mark Carney said, since cheerleaders are provided a coach as are other sports.

“I don’t thing it is equitable,” Ms. Africano said.

The committee eventually voted unanimously to set the cheerleading fee at $125.

• Co-op ice hockey fee remains at $800 — that’s partly due to the high cost of ice time, the committee was told.

• Transportation (school bus) fee for grade 7-12 students will drop from $225 to $200 per student; family transportation cap will drop from $450 to $400..

The superintendent said she was erring on the side of caution — “We want to be sure we have enough (money) if we have to put another bus on the road.” Each bus costs the town about $69,000 per year.

2024 by East Bay Media Group

Barrington · Bristol · East Providence · Little Compton · Portsmouth · Tiverton · Warren · Westport
Meet our staff
Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.