Board may compromise on user fees at schools

BY VINCENT TODARO
Staff Writer

SPOTSWOOD — A limit on fees charged to groups using school facilities could be in the works.

Board of Education President Alan Bartlett came up with a plan that would essentially abolish fees that the board announced it was going to charge for use of district facilities.

The proposal comes on the heels of comments made by Borough Council members including council President James Shearn opposing the idea of fees being charged to borough groups such as the recreation department. The board planned to charge the recreation department $500 per year. Shearn said he felt the charge was unnecessary and would only divert money from the borough budget into the school budget.

At a recent council meeting, both Shearn and Councilman Curtis Stollen accused the board of instituting the user fees as a way to get back at residents who voted against the school budget in April.

Bartlett responded that the fees were simply a way to recoup some of the $300,000 the council ordered to be cut from the defeated school budget.

Shearn told the Sentinel he will only oppose user fees that are being charged to borough-funded groups.

“The recreation money comes from the borough fund,” he told the Sentinel. “We would have to take taxpayers’ money to pay the $500.”

“It takes cuts from one area and transfers them to another,” Stollen told the Sentinel.

The recreation department uses school facilities for an arts and crafts program, as well as for wrestling, basketball and other sports, he said.

Stollen is also upset about the fees being charged to senior citizens who use the facilities for meetings.

“If anyone is disproportionately taxed, it’s the seniors,” he said. “The least [the board] can do is let the seniors hold a meeting.”

The issue of seniors paying user fees came up at a recent council meeting when it was revealed the seniors have not been carrying insurance. When the school district became aware of this, the board decided that the groups could not use the facilities until they secured insurance.

Previously, it was thought the seniors were covered under the borough’s insurance.

Bartlett said if the seniors can find a way to be covered by borough insurance, the district will consider them a borough group and not charge the fees.

He said the borough and school district are considering an interlocal agreement that would result in no user fees being charged to official borough groups. However, groups such as soccer and youth baseball leagues, theater companies and the Golden Bears/Chargers football team and cheerleaders would be charged.

Bartlett said smaller organizations will be charged an hourly rate, while larger groups would have to pay the annual $500 fee.

He also feels that some council members are only looking at one side of the equation.

“Where’s the outrage that library books and computers are not being purchased?” he asked, referring again to the cut ordered by the council in response to the failed budget.

The board cut items such as computers and books to reach the $300,000 goal. Among the other cuts were $65,000 that was slated to pay union workers for landscape services; $100,000 from the technology budget; $20,000 to fund a playground at the Schoenly School; and about a $10,000 reduction in the athletics budget. Also, the district will no longer pay for sports physicals, a move that brings a savings of $5,000.

As the result of a more recent decision by the board, the cost of complete lunches will increase by 25 cents, and a la carte items will also cost more. Bartlett said the changes will help the board reduce its operating deficit by $20,000.