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Councilors press school officials over fees that can cost families thousands a year
Summary
Councilors at the May 13 Ways and Means hearing singled out full-day kindergarten tuition ($3,800), bus fees ($360 per student, $720 family cap) and athletics fees (~$400/season) as burdensome for families and asked the district for peer comparisons and options to reduce family costs.
At the Committee of Ways and Means budget hearing on May 13, councilors pressed school finance staff about fees for families, saying combined charges can amount to thousands of dollars per household.
"This year it was around $3,800," Sarah Kaufman, school director of finance, told the committee when asked about full-day kindergarten tuition. Kaufman also confirmed the regular transportation fee is $360 per student with a family cap of $720 and said common athletics fees run about $400 per season for high school sports.
Councilor Maglio said those combined costs amount to a significant barrier for families, calling the current structure "almost unconscionable" and urging the school committee to prioritize eliminating or reducing fees to make Braintree more family-friendly. He and other councilors suggested exploring alternatives: shifting who is charged for bus services, charging for high-school parking as some districts do, and examining whether the town can expand subsidized bus routes to reduce single-occupancy vehicle traffic around schools.
Kaufman and Director Mike Esmonde said some fee increases have allowed the district to grow revolving accounts (transportation and athletics), which can offset operating costs; Kaufman noted that increases in revolving receipts allowed some line-item adjustments in the FY27 proposal. Councilors asked administration to provide a comparison of fees with similar communities and to return with options for reducing family burdens.
The committee also raised related operational issues, including how bus routing choices affect traffic near school campuses and whether further incentives or disincentives (including parking charges) could reduce vehicle congestion.
Next steps: staff agreed to provide fee-comparison data with peer communities, more detailed breakdowns of how revolving accounts offset operating costs, and an analysis of transportation and parking options for committee review.
