Some board of education members are pushing back on a Clarke County School District proposal to raise fees for after-school programs.
The current fees are $6 a day for the first child and $4 a day for additional children. That would rise to $10 and $8, with a daily cap of $20, under CCSD’s proposed fiscal 2025 budget.
“I am not pleased with parents having to almost double the cost of care each week,” board President Mumbi Anderson said at a budget hearing June 4.
“That is something we can look at,” Superintendent Robbie Hooker responded. But the district has not raised the cost for ASP for 15 years, he said.
In addition, Hooker said he is concerned about how a bill the state legislature passed earlier this year providing more funding for private school vouchers will affect CCSD’s budget next year. “We don’t know how this voucher bill is going to impact our school system,” he said. “I don’t want to be in a position where this year we do this [keep ASP the same] and next year we’re furloughing.”
Anderson called for an incremental increase instead. Board member Tim Denson asked the administration for information at a final budget hearing scheduled for June 12 on the budget impact of raising ASP fees by $1 a year instead.
A vote on final approval for the $241 million budget is scheduled for June 13. As with the ACC budget, the millage rate would stay the same, but many homeowners will receive higher tax bills because their property is worth more.
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