Seymour High School students concerned about the $180 parking fee have a reason to smile.
The Board of Education voted Monday to reduce the fee down to the pre-2009 level of $20.
That is $30 less than most proponents of the lowering the fee expected. Even the 220 students signing a petition to lower the fee were aiming for a $50 mark.
Superintendent of Schools MaryAnne Mascolo has some concerns bringing the fee down at this exact moment. It is too late to include the adjustment in the budget presentations and too early to know exactly where the education budget will wind up after public hearings and another review by the Board of Finance.
“I don’t dispute changing the parking fee,” Mascolo said. “My concern is the timing. This could have been brought up during budget deliberations.”
A group of students led by Olivia Staffo attended the meeting to make a case for lowering the fee. Staffo was responsible for the petition brought before the board last month. Staffo presented a list of other valley towns and their associated student parking fees.
At $200, only Naugatuck topped Seymour on the list. Oxford charges $100 fee.
Mascolo explained to the students the fee had been raised to deal with a zero increase in last year’s budget.
In order to fund necessary items, such as mandated raises, cuts had to be made, including eight teaching positions. Mascolo held that raising the parking fee helped stave off further cuts that would have hit non-sports activities, such as drama.
Mascolo couldn’t say if a $20 fee would hurt those programs with the budget going to public hearing on Thursday.
Board member Bruce Baker suggested a degree of collusion between First Selectman Paul Roy, school board member Fred Stanek and the students. That insinuation raised Stanek’s ire.
Stanek had been prepared to vote on the $50 fee as a compromise — but moved to amend the motion to a $20 fee after pushed by Baker.
Baker said he found it odd that so many people up to that point, including Roy, had agreed on $50.
Roy said he found $50 to be reasonable and there was no collusion. Roy has no vote on the board of education and was only offering his opinion.
“I think $20 was sufficient to administer the cost of parking stickers,” Stanek said.
The vote passed 4 – 3 with one abstention. The new fee will take effect for the 2010 – 2011 school year.
