Tabernacle BOE board member Brian Lepsis said the fees were prohibitive to many families.
The Tabernacle Board of Education deliberated getting rid of “fees for fun,” which are fees paid by students or their families to participate in extracurricular activities such as clubs and sports. The fees are $35 per student per club and $50 per student per sport. Exemptions to these fees are based only upon the qualifications of the federal school lunch program.
The motion was brought up by board member Brian Lepsis, who wanted to eliminate the fees. The motion was defeated. Board members Victoria Shoemaker, Gail Corey, Megan Jones, Kevin McCloy and John Tirico voted against Lepsis’ motion, and all voted to keep the funding structure as it is. Board members Megan Chamberlain and Antony Laudicina voted along with Lepsis to approve the motion. The same group, Chamberlain, Laudicina and Lepsis voted against the current structure. As a result, the current “fees for fun” funding structure remained intact.
“We’re striving to do so much here,” Lepsis said. “To include the whole community and at the same time we throw up a barrier to participation by those who are our core nucleus of constituents.”
Lepsis also said it was unfair not to have a maximum amount families can pay in the event one or multiple children engage in multiple clubs or sports.
Many board members who voted against eliminating the fees admitted to simply not having enough time to make a decision, but were receptive to potentially being persuaded in the future.
Tirico, after voting against doing away with the fees, said he couldn’t vote for it “right now.”
McCloy agreed the issue needed to be addressed, but couldn’t vote “to do it tonight,” he said. “I don’t feel comfortable doing that.”
“I’m not ready to go to zero right now,” Corey said. “However, I would like to see a family cap.”
In other news,
Multiple field trips for Tabernacle Elementary School students were approved. Notable trips include Popcorn Park Zoo in Forked River, Storybook Land in Egg Harbor Township, the Palmyra Cove in Palmyra, the Philadelphia Zoo, the Tuckerton Seaport Museum in Tuckerton, Camp Matollionquay in Medford Lakes and Ronald McDonald House in Camden.
Multiple field trips for Kenneth R. Olsen Middle School students were also approved. Notable trips include: the New Jersey Student Council Leadership Training at the College of New Jersey, the Ventnor Jazz Festival at Ventnor Middle School, Medford Jazz Festival at Medford Memorial Middle School, the Penn Museum in Philadelphia and an eighth-grade field trip to Hershey Park.
