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Parent urges board to reverse decision to shift AP/IB exam fees to families; board tables policy discussion
Summary
A Locust Valley parent criticized the district’s plan to stop paying AP and IB exam fees, warning the change could reduce participation and harm students’ GPA and college prospects; the board tabled discussion of the IB/AP testing-fee policy to a future meeting.
Karina Creedon, a district parent of four, told the Board of Education that the proposed change to shift Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) exam costs to families would make economic considerations trump educational opportunity for many students.
Creedon said her family and others were “steadfastly opposed” to a district decision — described in materials the board distributed — to phase out district payment of AP/IB exam fees and to require all students, including seniors, to pay exam costs starting in the 2026–27 school year. She told the board the district currently pays roughly $80,000 annually for testing fees (about $60,000 of that for seniors, she said) and that the total represented about 0.08% of the district’s approximately $89 million budget as presented earlier. Creedon said exam costs could total $1,000–$1,500 for some families across a student’s high-school career and that removing district payment would reduce exam participation, shrink class offerings, affect GPA weighting and class rank, and “undermine equity and academic excellence.”
Creedon asked the board to reconsider, to publish metrics that would show how course selection and grading would be affected, and to identify the peer districts surveyed at the March meeting; she said the board’s earlier poll did not identify which districts were contacted.
Board action: later in the meeting the board announced it would table discussion of the IB and AP testing-fee policy for a future meeting; the item was not adopted or rejected at this session. A question from the public during the meeting asked whether the student assessment fees line item shown in the budget packet (about $73,000 on the packet page cited by the commenter) reflected the policy change; a presenter confirmed the change had been incorporated into the adopted budget for the coming year and that further discussion would be about years beyond 2025–26.
Ending: The board did not take a final vote on whether the district will continue to cover AP/IB exam fees. The item was tabled for additional discussion at a later meeting and the public was referred to line-item budget materials for the near-term fiscal impact already included in the adopted budget.
