School committee approves field trip, raises driver’s-ed and athletics fees and enforces club fees

The Swampscott School Committee voted on several operational items April 10, approving a freshman field trip and changing fee schedules for driver’s education, clubs and athletics.

Field trip: The committee approved a request from freshman-class advisers to take students to Canobie Lake Park (New Hampshire) on Friday, June 6, with estimated per-student costs and arrangements for fee assistance for students unable to pay. The advisers said buses would depart about 8:30 a.m. and return around 5 p.m.; the per-student ticket was estimated at about $29 plus bus cost. A motion to approve the trip passed unanimously.

Driver’s education: The committee approved a new fee structure for the district-run driver’s education program. The committee approved $900 per Swampscott High School (SHS) student with a $300 deposit at registration, a $45 no-show/late fee, and $1,000 for non-SHS students; the student testing rate was raised from $132 to $150. Committee members said the program had been losing about $10,000 per year and the change is intended to bring the program closer to cost recovery. The motion passed unanimously.

Clubs: The committee voted to enforce the existing high-school club fee at $50 per club and to introduce a $25 club fee at the middle school. The committee asked administration to adopt a collection procedure that spares individual teachers from acting as money collectors and to provide waivers for students with financial need. The motion passed unanimously.

Athletics: The committee approved revised athletics fees under a phased approach. The committee adopted a proposal to set the high-school fee at $450 per sport with a family cap of $2,250 (sixth sport free) and increase the middle-school fee to $275 per sport. Free-lunch families remain exempt; reduced-price families receive a discount under current policy. Committee members asked the athletic director to provide detailed accounting of athletic expenses, gate receipts, uniforms and officials at a future meeting. Both athletics motions passed unanimously.

Other approvals: The committee appointed outgoing member Karen Marshall as a non-voting member of the district negotiating committee to help finalize outstanding unit negotiations. The committee also approved integrated preschool tuition proposals, accepted donated prom tickets to assist students in need, approved consent minutes from March 27, and adjourned. All votes described in the meeting were recorded as carrying unanimously.

Where motions were made in open session the meeting transcript records the motions and that each carried by unanimous vote; the transcript did not record individual roll-call tallies in the public comments portion.