School pictures today

[bethbuchall]

Fees for things like books and supplies are illegal in MN. The only fees we pay are for voluntary things like parking passes or athletic fees. The only check we will have to send on the first day of school is for lunch money.

Oh, we do pay for school lunches if the kids want them. Mine prefer a packed lunch, so I didn't think of that. I don't know if there is a charge for a parking pass at the high school, since we don't have a car for the kids. I don't think that there are any athletic fees here, but I don't know about all the sports. There are booster clubs that fund raise, but I don't think there are any mandatory athletic fees, though. There is a fee to join PTA, but that isn't really through the school.

We need to buy our own school supplies (pencils, notebooks, paper, etc), but that isn't handled through the schools at all.

 

[golfgal]

Oh, we do pay for school lunches if the kids want them. Mine prefer a packed lunch, so I didn't think of that. I don't know if there is a charge for a parking pass at the high school, since we don't have a car for the kids. I don't think that there are any athletic fees here, but I don't know about all the sports. There are booster clubs that fund raise, but I don't think there are any mandatory athletic fees, though.

Our parking passes are $60/trimester, so $180 for the year if you need one all year. DS18 had one the past 2 years because he was taking a class at another high school in our district and had to get himself back and forth. Athletic fees depend on the grade and sport but for golf last year it was $70. They raised the fess this year but I don't remember what they are. Marching band is self supported so there isn't a school fee for that but we do pay $800/kid but that includes a week at band camp, all the overnight trips, busing, etc.

 

[NHdisneylover]

The email is the daily announcements that they have in the high school and they are very helpful actually-especially with the lists of scholarships available and the contact information for applications, etc. They also listed the colleges that would be visiting the schools in the next couple weeks so we could talk with DS about which ones he wanted to talk with. I am FAR from a helicopter parent but there are things going on in the schools that parents do need to know and this cuts down on the phone calls to the schools. No one makes you sign up for these notifications. In fact, there was a huge thread just a couple days ago about some kid that missed golf tryouts-that would have easily been remedied by a system such as this.

See, I would want my kid to make the effort to find out when the try outs are and get there if they are interested--if they had to rely on me to know when try outs are I would think something was wrong. She misses the try outs and does not get to be on the team that year--lesson learned.
Personally, I count on my kids to pay attention to things like which colleges would be visiting, look for scholarships themselves online, etc (or even ask me to help), etc. Obviously it works well for your district which is great, but I still think it encourages helicopter parenting (I did not see you are one BTW) and it is a waste of time. I also think it is a waste of a high school student's time to have these things announce over the PA daily. What is that 5 minutes or so of instructional time per day lost to this?

 

[golfgal]

See, I would want my kid to make the effort to find out when the try outs are and get there if they are interested--if they had to rely on me to know when try outs are I would think something was wrong. She misses the try outs and does not get to be on the team that year--lesson learned.
Personally, I count on my kids to pay attention to things like which colleges would be visiting, look for scholarships themselves online, etc (or even ask me to help), etc. Obviously it works well for your district which is great, but I still think it encourages helicopter parenting (I did not see you are one BTW) and it is a waste of time. I also think it is a waste of a high school student's time to have these things announce over the PA daily. What is that 5 minutes or so of instructional time per day lost to this?

Actually they have a student run tv station in the school and the kids produce a news show that touches on things going on in the school, community and world and then the announcements are part of that. All of this is done during time built into the school schedule to accommodate this so no instructional time is lost.

 

[NHdisneylover]

Actually they have a student run tv station in the school and the kids produce a news show that touches on things going on in the school, community and world and then the announcements are part of that. All of this is done during time built into the school schedule to accommodate this so no instructional time is lost.

So if the state mandates that the kids spend X number of hours in school this school adds X number of additional hours to cover these announcements? Or do you just mean that the school schedule is designed to allow for this by slightly shortening all of the other classes or some such? Also, is it a student who then is emailing the parents these daily reports? I had thought it would be a paid staff member.
Either way the student run TV station is a neat idea. I have seen things like that done as an extra curricular activity but never a class. Interesting. Is it possible for them to either get the station included on local cable and/or put their shows online? Maybe they already do that. It does sound like yours is not one of the underfunded schools we so often hear about.

 

[jen0610]

Our parking passes are $60/trimester, so $180 for the year if you need one all year. DS18 had one the past 2 years because he was taking a class at another high school in our district and had to get himself back and forth. Athletic fees depend on the grade and sport but for golf last year it was $70. They raised the fess this year but I don't remember what they are. Marching band is self supported so there isn't a school fee for that but we do pay $800/kid but that includes a week at band camp, all the overnight trips, busing, etc.

$180.00 for the year!!!!!!! Ours is $50.00 for the 1st car and $15.00 for any other car after that. Most families only have to buy 2 tags a year.

 

[jen0610]

So if the state mandates that the kids spend X number of hours in school this school adds X number of additional hours to cover these announcements? Or do you just mean that the school schedule is designed to allow for this by slightly shortening all of the other classes or some such? Also, is it a student who then is emailing the parents these daily reports? I had thought it would be a paid staff member.
Either way the student run TV station is a neat idea. I have seen things like that done as an extra curricular activity but never a class. Interesting. Is it possible for them to either get the station included on local cable and/or put their shows online? Maybe they already do that. It does sound like yours is not one of the underfunded schools we so often hear about.

For those kids interest in broadcasting, our HS does have classes that Jr's and Sr's can take. They do a Monday morning broadcast that is done during homeroom. It's about 10-20 minutes and it highlights what is taking place during that week at school - sports games that week, band/choir performances, tryout's for plays/musicals/sports/cheerleading, the hot lunch meal menu, upcoming dances, yearbook/new paper sales. This is it. It covers the social aspect of high school, not academics.

 

[golfgal]

So if the state mandates that the kids spend X number of hours in school this school adds X number of additional hours to cover these announcements? Or do you just mean that the school schedule is designed to allow for this by slightly shortening all of the other classes or some such? Also, is it a student who then is emailing the parents these daily reports? I had thought it would be a paid staff member.
Either way the student run TV station is a neat idea. I have seen things like that done as an extra curricular activity but never a class. Interesting. Is it possible for them to either get the station included on local cable and/or put their shows online? Maybe they already do that. It does sound like yours is not one of the underfunded schools we so often hear about.

They add 5 minutes to one class period to take care of announcements. Our school is in session for more then the state mandated time so it really doesn't matter. The TV class is an elective that the kids can take. I don't know if it is on the local cable access channel or not, we got rid of cable after some major issues with the cable company .

Our school was very well funded until the state cut funding to all the schools. We will be having a bond referendum in the fall, first one in about 8 years, to help make up that deficit.

$180.00 for the year!!!!!!! Ours is $50.00 for the 1st car and $15.00 for any other car after that. Most families only have to buy 2 tags a year.

Our passes are ones you hang on the rearview mirror so you don't need to buy more than one and the price is set higher to discourage kids from driving really. If our son didn't need to get to the other high school he wouldn't have been driving to school. Our twins will probably only get to drive during the last trimester of the year when they will need the car to get to golf practice (when they get their license) otherwise the bus stop is about 10 steps out the front door.

 

[golfgal]

For those kids interest in broadcasting, our HS does have classes that Jr's and Sr's can take. They do a Monday morning broadcast that is done during homeroom. It's about 10-20 minutes and it highlights what is taking place during that week at school - sports games that week, band/choir performances, tryout's for plays/musicals/sports/cheerleading, the hot lunch meal menu, upcoming dances, yearbook/new paper sales. This is it. It covers the social aspect of high school, not academics.

They do a longer show once/week at our school too that plays during the lunch hour.

 

[jen0610]

Our passes are ones you hang on the rearview mirror so you don't need to buy more than one and the price is set higher to discourage kids from driving really. If our son didn't need to get to the other high school he wouldn't have been driving to school. Our twins will probably only get to drive during the last trimester of the year when they will need the car to get to golf practice (when they get their license) otherwise the bus stop is about 10 steps out the front door.

We still do the window cling ones. You have to register what car is going with each permit you buy. You have to provide proof of inusurance, listing the teen driver, in order to get the permits. This prevents the kids from swapping the permit to a driver who isn't autherized to drive to school. So while the parking lots do get checked, it is not done daily, more like once a month.

 

[golfgal]

We still do the window cling ones. You have to register what car is going with each permit you buy. You have to provide proof of inusurance, listing the teen driver, in order to get the permits. This prevents the kids from swapping the permit to a driver who isn't autherized to drive to school. So while the parking lots do get checked, it is not done daily, more like once a month.

Our kids just have to bring a check. There is still only one car that can use the permit at a time and I am sure kids swap but the school doesn't police that.

 

[jme829]

$180.00 for the year!!!!!!! Ours is $50.00 for the 1st car and $15.00 for any other car after that. Most families only have to buy 2 tags a year.

I agree! Our parking pass (optional) is $75 for the year and I thought that was bad..lol...the only mandatory fees we had was $9 for dd17 (senior) for student planner (also acts as a hall pass) and class fee, DS was $9 (his would have been a little more, but he has dd11's calculator and recorder he can use, so we saved $20 bucks or so there) and DD11 was $19.

HS sports are $40 (max $100 or so for a family I think) per sport which I think is a bargain, considering it includes volleyball practice everyday starting this week for 2 hours until October (or further if by chance they make it past regionals), plus all their conference and non conference games, plus 4 tournaments AND the conference tournament, plus uniforms, warmups and gear bags for each girl (warmups and bags are usually personalized)!


Now I did pay a lot more than the required fees for pictures, yearbooks, senior all night party, etc...but that was all optional. So I guess breaking it all down, we have it pretty good here!

 

[golfgal]

I agree! Our parking pass (optional) is $75 for the year and I thought that was bad..lol...the only mandatory fees we had was $9 for dd17 (senior) for student planner (also acts as a hall pass) and class fee, DS was $9 (his would have been a little more, but he has dd11's calculator and recorder he can use, so we saved $20 bucks or so there) and DD11 was $19.

HS sports are $40 (max $100 or so for a family I think) per sport which I think is a bargain, considering it includes volleyball practice everyday starting this week for 2 hours until October (or further if by chance they make it past regionals), plus all their conference and non conference games, plus 4 tournaments AND the conference tournament, plus uniforms, warmups and gear bags for each girl (warmups and bags are usually personalized)!


Now I did pay a lot more than the required fees for pictures, yearbooks, senior all night party, etc...but that was all optional. So I guess breaking it all down, we have it pretty good here!

I am surprised that the state high school league allows that. I know in MN they can't provide equipment that they keep for free because of all the regulations surrounding amateur status, recruiting, etc. We can BUY that stuff and every team does do something usually.

 

[undertheradar]

At DS' old hs the parking lot was checked multiple times per day and vehicles were booted or towed if they didn't match school records. At my DD' hs, they issue more parking permits than spaces exist with the advisory that students should arrive early to get parking. It is $35.00 for parking for the year. It looks as if the hs in MN is charging excessive parking to offset other student fees .

As for picture day, the pictures for incoming freshmen were taken at open house in April(the students get ids at registration). I think this was a nice relaxed way for the future hs students to get the photos done.

In regards to sports fees: football was an easy $1000.00+ with the mandatory fundraising ad sales, spirit cards, uniform fees and transportation fees, booster dues. The year we went to Hawaii was insanely expensive- over $2000.00 for the trip and the season. The amounts you all are listing are very low!

 

[golfgal]

At DS' old hs the parking lot was checked multiple times per day and vehicles were booted or towed if they didn't match school records. At my DD' hs, they issue more parking permits than spaces exist with the advisory that students should arrive early to get parking. It is $35.00 for parking for the year. It looks as if the hs in MN is charging excessive parking to offset other student fees .

As for picture day, the pictures for incoming freshmen were taken at open house in April(the students get ids at registration). I think this was a nice relaxed way for the future hs students to get the photos done.

In regards to sports fees: football was an easy $1000.00+ with the mandatory fundraising ad sales, spirit cards, uniform fees and transportation fees, booster dues. The year we went to Hawaii was insanely expensive- over $2000.00 for the trip and the season. The amounts you all are listing are very low!

No, they are paying for the upkeep of the parking lot. Our taxes cover the rest of the costs.

 

[bethbuchall]

$180.00 for the year!!!!!!! Ours is $50.00 for the 1st car and $15.00 for any other car after that. Most families only have to buy 2 tags a year.

I asked dd about parking passes. She said that there is no cost for parking. Most of the seniors that apply are able to get the parking passes and then it goes into a lottery for juniors that want them.

 

[golfgal]

I asked dd about parking passes. She said that there is no cost for parking. Most of the seniors that apply are able to get the parking passes and then it goes into a lottery for juniors that want them.

Seniors and priority students get to sign up first to get a pass (priority students are those that HAVE to have a car on campus for getting to a class elsewhere, kids in work study programs, etc.), then the juniors get to sign up the next day on a first come, first serve basis. If there are any left after that, sophomores go into a lottery. Again, they try to discourage kids from driving and there are only so many parking spots.

 

[MichelleVW]

Fees for things like books and supplies are illegal in MN. The only fees we pay are for voluntary things like parking passes or athletic fees. The only check we will have to send on the first day of school is for lunch money.

So, you do have fees then. Fees are fees in my opinion, and parking really isn't voluntary to me. If kids are involved in after school activities or have a job they really need to be able to drive to school. I am not a taxi. The parking fee is $35 at DD's school. I think parking was free at their school in North Dakota. $180 is highway robbery.

 

[golfgal]

So, you do have fees then. Fees are fees in my opinion, and parking really isn't voluntary to me. If kids are involved in after school activities or have a job they really need to be able to drive to school. I am not a taxi. The parking fee is $35 at DD's school. I think parking was free at their school in North Dakota. $180 is highway robbery.

I said the only fees they have are voluntary fees. Parking is voluntary. We live in a smaller town and the kids can walk to most after school jobs if needed. The only activity that doesn't take place on the school campus is golf, other than that there is an activity bus that kids can take after practice, etc. So what if other schools charge less, our parking lots are in good shape but they are only so big and the fees are set to discourage driving to school. With what everyone here posts for book fees, student activity fees, and all the other fees, they certainly pay a lot more than $180 for those.