CALDWELL, Idaho (CBS2) — The Caldwell School District is now instituting pay-to-play fees, due to the failure of the district's supplemental levy this last May.
Starting this school year students in band, choir, speech, debate, cheer, and other sports will be paying a $100 fee.
This is the first time the Caldwell school district is enforcing a pay-to-play for students.
Jessica Watts the Director of Communications at the Caldwell School District said, "Our supplemental levy has helped fund those costs in the past, and with the failure of the supplemental levy this year, the district is finding other ways to help provide those funds."
to help provide extra funds the School District is raising other fees as well. Student ID cards are rising in price from 35 dollars to 50 dollars. Breakfast meal costs will rise from $2.75 to $2.85 and lunch meals will rise from $4.70 to $4.95.
The pay-to-play price was chosen by the board after a discussion between school officials.
Watts said, "It was discussed by our athletic director and the superintendent and looking around at those other schools in the area who also have pay to participate."
Caldwell High School's cross-country coach questioned the board about community outreach around the failed levy. The chair of the board said they were limited by the legislature.
Marisela Pesina, Chair of the Caldwell School Board of Trustees said, "The legislature has changed it so that we can only do it in May in November. So they eliminated two election days. The other thing was they wanted more verbiage on what we could say. We could only educate the public, but we couldn't advocate, so we couldn't say, can you please vote yes."
The district spokesperson also talked about efforts to spread the word around the district, saying they communicated to the public through emails - social media posts - the district website - and brochures - along with making it known to staff.
Chair Pesina said there were restrictions on the way they could communicate.
"Whenever we advertised the election, we had to say how it was going to affect the taxpayers. How much money per $100,000 of the value of your home. It all had to be on there. When we used to use the reader boards before, we couldn't, because we had to have all that verbiage on there. It started getting stricter."
The Caldwell School District says they hope the community will understand the necessity of the levy and will vote next year so these costs don't continue.
ncG1vNJzZmihlJa1sLrEsKpnm5%2BifK%2Bx1qxmpaeTlrlwr8Clm7CdnKF6tK%2FHqKalZZSewLW%2ByJyrZqqRnsCmv4yfnJ6rXam8brvFn6qerF2brqq4xJ1krK2gpbmmucSnq5qkXaGyt8WMqaybpJmYeqStzbKmp2WTpMKvwNhmmqirpKh6rbHVopys