By Dale Bass
Kamloops This Week
School District 73 trustees approved a package of student ancillary fees on Monday, May 11, but not before trustees asked questions.
Joe Small noted a lack of standardization of some common fees across the district, wondering why they vary.
Assistant superintendent Alison Sidow said the differences come from specific projects teachers are including in the courses, citing woodworking as an example, where one school may choose to use a more expensive piece of wood than another.
The fees also cover the value of works students create and are allowed to keep.
Meghan Wade asked why there were detailed descriptions accompanying the fee schedule for all schools except Brock middle.
Those were some of the largest academy fees in the district at $350 for aquatics, $475 for soccer, $250 for hockey and $225 for dance.
Board of education chairwoman Denise Harper said a large portion of the fees goes toward renting facilities for each academy.
Harper asked about student fees in the district’s trades and transition programs, which includes the NorKam trades school.
While the district pays the tuition for students in the courses, there are additional fees ranging from $1,140 for parts and warehousing to $2,195 for heavy mechanic.
Sidow said those fees go toward safety gear, uniforms, tools, learning guides and textbooks, among others, all items students can keep. Because the courses provide post-secondary credit through Thompson Rivers University, students also have to pay for the fees other TRU students are billed for, including the university’s building fund, student union, Omega newspaper, Cariboo Child Care Society, radio station and Canadian Federation of Student membership.