District 161 Board Meeting Roundup: Keeping Fees the Same

Here are the details of what the Summit Hill School District 161 approved at Wednesday night's school board meeting:

The request: Approval of school registration fees for the 2011-12 school year. 

What it means: The approval would hold fees at their current levels, which are:

• $125 for half-day kindergarten
• $150 for full-day kindergarten through eighth grade
• $25 late fee per child

Any comments by the board or public? Board member Joy Murphy asked if the board would consider lowering the late fee as a way to accommodate low-income families with multiple children registering in the district because they might be unable to pay all the fees at once.

Superintendent Keith Pain said the district already had mechanisms in place to help out families with financial hardships and that lowering the late fee would require the board to rework all the registration fees.

"We've done everything we can to try to discern the difference between those who can and those who can't afford to pay the fees," Pain said.

How did it pass? Unanimously. 

In related news: Kindergarten registration is under way for the district, and Superintendent Pain said 171 students are currently registered with 53 applications in the system but not completed.