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Student tells Tolland board budget cuts and higher club fees are hurting opportunities
Summary
A Tolland High School junior urged the board to address staffing shortages, rising club fees and reduced extracurricular opportunity, saying club costs rose from $40 to $85 and that school nurses are sometimes unavailable at events.
Becca Marie, a junior at Tolland High School, used the public‑comment portion of the Board of Education meeting on Dec. 3 to press the board on classroom staffing and extracurricular costs.
"Every year, it's gotten worse. The budget has gotten worse. There's less and less teachers every single year," Becca said, describing full classes and fewer course offerings. She criticized the rollout of a new extracurricular registration system as chaotic and said the per‑club fee rose to $85 this year from about $40 last year, forcing students to fundraise. "That is over 100% increase in cost," she said, and added that some students needed to ask relatives for money to participate.
Becca also raised concerns about school health coverage, saying there are not enough nurses, and that at some meetings there would be no nurse on site to respond to an emergency.
Board members thanked the speaker and noted that written correspondence and follow‑up through the superintendent’s office is the appropriate channel for case‑specific matters; attorney guidance later in the meeting reiterated that individual student or personnel matters are handled administratively and have confidentiality limits under state and federal law.
No board action was taken during public comment; members said systemic budget and policy questions can be referred to committee or administration for follow up.
