Board discusses new EDRs for clubs and seeks clarity on activity fees and overnight-trip funding

The superintendent asked the Great Valley School District Board of Directors for informal support to add several extra-duty remuneration (EDR) stipends for 2025–26, including Model United Nations at the high school, a chorus EDR for the 5–6 Center, and Unified Bocce and Unified Track and Field tied to Special Olympics. The board did not take formal action but asked staff to negotiate dollar amounts with the teachers’ association and return with proposals.

The request was presented as part of a broader discussion about how activity fees and overnight-trip expenses are handled. The superintendent said activity fees would continue to apply for the newly proposed EDRs and confirmed that the district typically covers chaperone expenses for overnight trips while students pay their own lodging, transportation and meal costs: "When we segue into the trip parts, normally, when it's an EDR, we will support the expenses for the chaperone... the students are then covering their lodging, their transportation, their meals, and the like." The board sought clearer, standardized rules about when the district pays chaperone costs and when travel companies’ arrangements or fundraising determine who is charged.

Board members pressed for more accountability on collection of activity fees after administration acknowledged several middle-school fees were not collected this year due to procedural confusion. Board member Tom Barrett asked, "Can we talk about how we're tracking activity fees that are supposed to be collected that maybe are not being collected?" The superintendent said the business office will move to a more standardized online collection system to allow reporting to advisers and better reconciliation, and that administration would verify whether fee-collection responsibilities are explicitly included in EDR contracts or the newly issued club sponsor handbook.

Administration supplied several program details during the discussion: Model UN was described as a large high-school club with "80 to 100 students" that travels to multi-day conferences; the high-school activity fee is $95 and the 5–6 center activity fee is $45; Unified Bocce typically includes about 15 athletes and Unified Track about 20 students with additional peer partners; and the district covered adult chaperone costs while students cover other trip expenses. Board members asked the administration to document when and how the district pays for travel, since arrangements vary (for example, some world-language trips use travel companies that provide chaperones built into the package).

Administration proposed next steps: engage the Great Valley Education Association to negotiate stipend amounts for the new EDRs, return to the board next month with suggested dollar figures, and bring formal EDR additions for board approval in June. Staff also committed to a clearer collection process for activity fees before September and to communicate family support options for fees.

The board emphasized it wanted oversight and regular updates: if enrollment or revenues for a given EDR are low, the board expects periodic enrollment reports and financial reconciliation rather than automatic continuation of pay when participation is minimal.

Less urgent operational items described in the presentation included examples of existing field trips and fundraising models; administration cautioned that large cultural-immersion trips can cost several thousand dollars per family and that the district has limited capacity to fully subsidize those high-cost experiences.

Administration will return with negotiated stipend amounts and a clarified, written policy on overnight-trip cost responsibilities and activity-fee tracking before the 2025–26 school year begins.