New Lenox parents may save on fees for school

New Lenox Elementary School District officials may reduce student fees next year.

This year, fees were $160 for early childhood and kindergarten students, $165 for first- and second-graders and $170 for third- through eighth-graders.

In addition, students paid a $40 activity fee and a $75 instructional materials fee. Students in kindergarten through sixth grade also paid a $6 PTO class party fee, and third-grade students paid a $5 recorder fee.

The school board's finance committee is considering eliminating the $40 activity fee for kindergarten through third-graders or reducing the registration fee for all grades by $50 or by $100.

School officials are to discuss the budget impact of each option at the committee's next meeting at 6 p.m. Dec. 7.

"We need to offer relief to all (parents)," board member Patrick Martino said at Thursday's committee meeting.

Board vice president Kathy Miller was not against decreasing fees by a small amount, particularly the activity fee for students younger than third grade.

"With the economy where it is, I am hard-pressed to see us cutting fees by much," Miller said. "I am really against doing $100 or even more than $20."

District officials also are considering payment schedules for families who cannot pay the entire amount at one time in addition to a reduced fee for families who qualify for reduced-price lunches or a similar guideline.

Families who qualify for the free lunch program already can have their fees waived, Superintendent Michael Sass said. The committee also discussed the district's tentative tax levy.

The tentative levy will be voted on by the full board at the Nov. 18 meeting, district business manger Harold Huang said.

The district approved a $39.8 million levy in December, Huang said.

District officials did not disclose the tentative levy amounts, but Huang said there will be an increase in the levy amount but that it will be less than 105 percent of last year's amount.

"Our aggregate levy (which does not include bond and interest) will go up very little," Huang said.

In September, the board approved a budget that projects total revenue of nearly $56.4 million and expenditures of nearly $58 million, which includes a nearly $2 million construction project at Oakview Elementary School, 809 N. Cedar Road, and Haines Elementary School, 155 Haines Ave.

The district's operating budget, however, is balanced, with $48.7 million in revenue and expenditures of $48.3 million, district officials have stressed. The operating funds include six of the district's nine funds.

The district sold bonds in 2004 and 2005 to pay for the cost of the construction project, officials said.