By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
Montgomery Township parents will no longer have to pay an activities fee to cover extracurricular activities in the Montgomery Township public school district.
School district officials have agreed to eliminate the fee, beginning with the 2017-18 school year. The fee is $100 per student, with a $200 cap per family.
The fee applies to students in grades 7-12.
The decision to drop the student activity fee was made after school district officials found savings of $125,000 in health-care costs in the 2017-18 budget. School district officials faced a choice between eliminating the fee or using the savings for another purpose.
Eliminating the fee will benefit the community, Business Administrator Annette Wells told the Montgomery Township Board of Education. Although there is a $200 cap on the fee, it can be a hardship for some families, she said.
"This will be a lasting (decision)," Ms. Wells said.
School board member Shreesh Tiwari agreed with the plan to drop the activities fee. Many families are living "day to day," he said, and adding an activities fee is a hardship.
