By NEIL ZOLOT
NORTH READING — The School Committee approved a family cap of $1,800 on student activity fees at their meeting Tuesday August 29.
The cap applies to athletics, extracurricular clubs and activities, performing arts and busing for families who qualify.
“This is a start, an important thing to do, and an acknowledgement of how many fees there are,” School Committee member Jeff Friedman said. “It’s at a level that makes sense but not higher than they need to be.”
“This does affect families,” Committee Chair Scott Buckley added. “There are families paying over $2,000.”
Families will need to apply for financial eligibility. Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations Michael Connelly said it will affect 20 to 30 families and have an impact of less than $4,000 on the budget. “It does allow parents with multiple siblings participating in many extra-curricular programs a little financial relief and the ability to budget and plan for a fixed cost for these programs,” he said. “As much as we’d like to eliminate and lower fees, the reality is a budget must support programs.”
“Financially it’s not the biggest impact and it makes a statement,” Buckley feels. “Although we can’t fully eliminate fees, we’re putting in this structure. It’ll help people with a fixed number. We feel it will help.”
Connelly also suggested yearly reviews of the program, which was also discussed in meetings in February and March. “We want this to be evaluated on an annual basis,” he said. “Anything of this magnitude will need to be evaluated to see how it worked and how many families qualified.”
A byproduct of the cap is students may be able to do more when otherwise they may have had to skip activities because of the fees. “There may be families that can take advantage of this so their kids can participate in more activities,” member Noelle Rudloff said.
“We don’t want teams not to be formed because there isn’t enough money,” Buckley added.
First reading of disciplinary policy OK’d
In other items, the School Committee approved a First Reading of a change in a policy about disciplinary action toward students, which de-prioritizes suspension as a disciplinary tool. The new policy reads: “All school principals and designees and the Superintendent and designees when acting as a decision maker at a disciplinary hearing or appeal to consider student discipline other than offenses involving drugs, weapons or assaults on school staff and felony offenses, shall, when deciding the consequences for the student, consider ways to re-engage the student in the learning process.
“The principal or designee shall not suspend the student until alternative remedies have been employed and their use and results documented, unless specific reasons are documented as to why such alternative remedies would be unsuitable or counter-productive or the student’s continued presence in school would pose a specific, documentable concern about the infliction of serious bodily harm or other serious injury upon another person while in school.” The language was taken from Mass. General Laws Ch.71, Sect. 37H 3/4.
Additional language added at the local level includes: “Alternative remedies may include, but shall not be limited to, mediation, conflict resolution and collaborative problem solving.”
The matter was discussed by the School Committee July 24, at which time Superintendent Dr. Patrick Daly said, “The school should consider other action before suspension.” He also said the policy at the state and local levels will “address disparate responses across the state.”
“The changes will ensure alternative remedies have been considered prior to suspension,” added NRHS Principal Anthony Loprete.
Daly and Loprete also said the School Department is already engaging in the practice. “We’re doing this already,” Daly said. “It’s something teachers are doing, dealing with conflict in their classrooms before it reaches the level of suspension. This is to update the policy to follow our practices.”
“We’ve used mediation strategies consistently prior to this,” Loprete stated.