Oh, So NOW the District is Sending Out the Pay for K Bills
From our Open Thread Sunday. The district seriously sent out huge bills for Pay for K right before Christmas?
I just want to say that I got my $828 Pay4K bill on DECEMBER 24!! Really, SPS? I knew it would be coming, although I NEVER once got any information about it before school started - I never got a Welcome to Kindergarten packet from the district, but I have been saving my money while waiting to learn how to Pay4K- but to send them out Christmas week? I just think about all the families that could barely pull Christmas together this year, who are not FRL...makes me sick.
Annoyed K Parent
I just want to say that I got my $828 Pay4K bill on DECEMBER 24!! Really, SPS? I knew it would be coming, although I NEVER once got any information about it before school started - I never got a Welcome to Kindergarten packet from the district, but I have been saving my money while waiting to learn how to Pay4K- but to send them out Christmas week? I just think about all the families that could barely pull Christmas together this year, who are not FRL...makes me sick.
Annoyed K Parent
Comments
If you read up on the SPS web site, they are pretty clear about the payment expectation and they are only invoicing parents who are late in payment. What I think the issue is, parents did not receive a letter with the following information.
"The initial payment of $207 for September of school year 2010-11 is due by August 25th. After the initial payment, the $207 monthly fee will be due on the last day of the preceding month. For example, October fees will be due September 30. Note: individual fee refunds for partial months attended may be made only if the student leaves the district. For students enrolled after the start of a school year, the student fee is $207 for the initial month when enrolled in the first 15 calendar days of the month, and 50% of $207 (or $103.50) for the initial month when enrolled after the 15th of the month. Invoices will be mailed only to parents/guardians who are delinquent on their payments. If payment is not received, a reminder call will be placed to the parent/guardian."
With that said, I am not sure when this information was posted as there is no last "updated" date on the page.
The issue is not just not receiving a letter; it's the district's inability to do simple accounting.
That said, FRL families should not be getting these bills. Would be interesting to know if they are!
For instance at our school tour we were told no pay4K. Then at orientation, oops, we meant yes pay4K, well after open enrollment no real chance to change schools. Then we got letters ( from the district) saying, no wrong again. No pay4k. Even our hardworking principal cannot figure out if we are to pay or not. Will I get a bill? Who knows. Will I be paying it without a fight? No way.
$207 a month is a big deal for our family. $800 all at once will not happen.
BTW, our family misses the FRL cutoff by less than 1000.00 per year. Our school itself does not have a high enough percentage of FRL to qualify for all school free all day K. Our PTA has always used some of their money to fund it.
SLP
This drives me nuts, there should be a sliding scale for Pay for K (Our school tried to have fundraising money create a fund for it, but our principal said the District wouldn't allow it.).
Paying $2000 to P4K effectively takes that money out of the SLP family budget and should count as making them eligible for free p4K. Does SPS account for that anywhere? What, in reality, is the penalty for not paying? Will they order up a school bus and send a five year old home in the middle of the day? Will they send the bill to collections (have they accounted accurately enough to make this possible)? Are the consequences of not paying set out in writing? Have families been required to sign a contract?
SLP
I think you should raise this issue at the next PTA meeting - contact your PTA officers and have them put it on the agenda for both the general meeting and their board meeting.
Think about what you want so you can express it clearly.
This is the situation our family is in. We are just above the income limits that the district lists for FRL, but we do qualify for Basic Food with DSHS. So, luckily, we don't have to pay for K for our kindergartener (there's completely no chance we'd be able to pay anyway).
It's kind of a big deal to do a DSHS application, and I know some people don't really approve of getting the assistance, but if you're not getting by otherwise and can't afford PayForK, you should consider it. The PeoplePoint organization can help you apply.
Definitely contact your PTSA or Site Council and ask them to solicit opinions from other K-2 (at least) parents. It's important for families with younger sibs coming up to be informed about this--not just current K families. If you have an issue with this, there are other families who do as well.
K parent
Another K parent
Don't make threats you are not prepared to carry out.
The District should not threaten families that they will send kindergarteners home on a school bus at noon (at a cost of about $40,000 per year) if the family either fails or refuses to pay about $2,000 in kindergarten tuition that the District cannot require them to pay and which the families never agreed to pay.
This is what happens when the District central administration takes over Pay for K.
This is a perfect example of the quality of the superintendent's implementations.
This is a perfect example of the District's failure to consider contingencies.
No, K parent the district won't sue you. They probably can't since you never agreed to pay tuition in the first place. And, no, they won't kick your kid out of school.
But your failure to pay won't bode well for future K families.
The district will probably do one or both of the following:
Raise the pay for K tuition next year to compensate for the fact that not all families will pay their tuition.
OR
Make sure that all schools offer a 1/2 day option for families like K parent who chooses not to pay.
Would half-day K no longer be an option for families that prefer it?
The district owes parents an apology and willingness to extend payment over the summer and into next year for no penalty or mark against their credit. Offering automatic payment on parent's choice of days would be good, and it's the sort of thing that a competent district administration should be able to do that a PTA can't.
I've heard that the state doesn't pay for six periods in high school, but really I don't understand what this means.
I mean, I don't think there is some budget line item for 5 periods of high school for each student. Doesn't the district just give the district a chunk of money per student (excluding some add ons like LAP money etc).
The district uses that money as they like. They could choose to fund 6 periods or they could choose to fund a bunch of useless adminstration staffing and projects. How is it possible to say that the state doesn't fund 5 periods?
Please, for now, accept as the universally acknowledged truth that the state only pays for five periods a day for high school students and a half-day for kindergarten.
While I suppose other perspectives are possible, including one in which the state pays for a six period day for high school students, it would be just as easy to conclude that the state pays for full-day kindergarten. Only they don't.