Schools

Board Approves Fee Schedule For Outside Vendors

This will include a facilities fee for the before- and after-care programs.

The board of education outlined a at its June 14 meeting, streamlining the policy for non-profit organizations and for before- and after-care programs.

According to board of education vice president Patrick Breslin, the policy has been changed to make it easier to follow, and to allow, for example, for the Special Olympics to retain its status as a non-fee charged event.

“For other activities that will be sponsored by the county, we are willing to provide a free use of the facilities as long as the activity is being shared by other districts throughout the county so we are not the only ones incurring the costs,” he said.

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As for the before- and after-care programs, Breslin said, before school programs will pay $5 per month per child. The after school programs will be $15 per month per child.

Board of education member Jill Gladstone said she attended the first meeting of the clubs committee and was told that some clubs were created at Eisenhower Intermediate School through teachers forming their own LLCs.

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“[In that way], they are their own entities separate from the district and they have their own insurance,” she said. “But it seems like that would be an outside group, so does that have to be incorporated into the policy?”

“They’re like a private company like the after school programs or any outside vendor, so how do we handle that?” she asked.

For Superintendent of Schools Michael Schilder, he said he believes that the clubs would be board-approved so they would fall under the first class of the policy, indicating those organizations that do not have to pay.

Breslin, on the other hand, had a different point of view.

“When they form an LLC, they are not board-approved, they are independent contractors,” he said. “That is why they have insurance, so there is a fee.”

Gladstone said she believes this is something that needs to be examined because if the committee ends up reinstating clubs, the teachers will not need the LLC.

“My feeling is that having the pay to play clubs and going through this committee process is so we don’t have teachers forming LLCs,” said board of education president Evan Lerner. “I would like to think the committee’s work will take away the need for that. To me, it makes no sense to have two mechanisms for this when they both serve the same thing.”

Breslin said he would like to approve the policy as is, but continue to discuss how to deal with the new pay to play policies that might come from the committee. For organizations like the before- and after-care programs, he said, they are waiting on the board’s determination about the fee schedule before deciding what to charge parents for bringing their children there.

“I think we should continue to look at this, but not hold up on the second reading of the policy,” he said. “I would like to have the other issue separate.”

The board agreed to move forward in that manner.


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