Answer - Not the Board of Education.
An earlier post on this blog explored the vast differences in the mandatory senior fee assessment charged in high schools across Montgomery County. See Annual Senior Fee Survey.
Can you cite any applicable MCPS or BOE Policy?
I can't. It's not listed as part of the graduation requirements for obtaining a diploma from MCPS. It's not in the Curricular Fee Policy. I couldn't find any mention of fees anywhere in the Maryland statutes on education - if you can find a citation, please leave a comment below.
The real answer is this isn't a mandatory fee at all, because no one is authorized to collect this fee. Yet parents pay, year after year, because the consequences are harsh. No prom, no end of year festivities. Just because someone told them they must.
At Blair HS, even if you pay for the cap/gown, a failure to pay the mandatory senior fee means your student won't receive a cap/gown/tassel and graduation tickets. So kids who aren't able to pay or have someone else pick up the assessment, won't be able to walk down the aisle at Constitution Hall. The Blair administration admits that 100 students may be unable to pay the fee or obtain a cap/gown/tassel, but that doesn't include those students who have recently changed financial situations or who have not yet let the school know of their circumstances.
Yet year after year, in the absence of any authority to collect these fees, families are consenting to the continuation of the practice.
That's bullying, plain and simple. What a great example we are teaching the students.
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From the chart provided by MCPS in response to a Maryland Public Information Act Request, of the schools who charge senior fees are as varied as the schools themselves. Here is a list of who approved the illegal charge. Be sure to thank them.
Principals (12)- Blake,* Blair, Poolesville, Quince Orchard, Richard Mongomery, Rock Terrace, Rockville, Seneca Valley, Sherwood, Wheaton, Watkins Mill, and Walter Johnson
Community Superintendent (1) - Northwood
Assistant Principals (2) - Albert Einstein and Thomas S. Wootton
Other (1) Kennedy
No graduation fees 2010 school year (11) - BCC, Blake,* Churchill, Clarksburg, Damascus, Edison Center, Gaithersburg, Magruder, Northwest, Paint Branch and Springbrook
Two notes to this table.
1. Montgomery Blair's actual fees are $70, because the school charges a mandatory fee of $35 in addition to a cap/gown/tassel fee of $35.
2. Blake HS charged fees in 2009, but not in 2010.
- MCPS budgeted $3,600 per school for graduation in FY10
ReplyDelete- It costs more to graduate from DAR starting with the $5,000 facility cost
- Schools that are not passing on some fee for graduation are covering it from other funds available
- Schools that are charging a fee are externalizing the actual costs
So are you congratulating the principals who are covering the graduation costs from unknown sources: PTSA, slush funds, etc.?
Or do you advocate that MCPS budget fully for graduation for every school?
Question---are the fees graduation fees for graduation or fees for cap and gowns that kids keep?
ReplyDeleteNo. These fees are much more than the cost of a cap and gown.
ReplyDelete