They say it takes a village to raise a child, but it also takes deep pockets to educate one.

Basic costs of education are spread out in communities in the form of local property taxes along with state and federal funds, but one of the biggest complaints schools hear this time of year from parents is about additional fees.

Parents typically end up paying out of pocket expenses in the form of school fees, supply lists and extracurricular fees that could add up to more than $1,000 a year for one student at area schools, according to an examination by this newspaper.

Fee schedules collected by this newspaper show parents pay school fees anywhere from a high of $55 a year in the Fairfield schools to as low as $40 in the Ross and Monroe school districts at the elementary age.

High school fees vary by what classes are taken, but students in Hamilton could pay up to $500 to participate in fine arts programs after school and in Lakota students must pay $550 to play one sport.

And this doesn’t include lunches, field trips, pictures and innumerable expenses that pop up every day.

“The general philosophy behind schools collecting fees is that all citizens pay taxes to support local schools but because their children benefit more than the average taxpayer, parents are asked to pay additional fees to cover costs,” Middletown City Schools Superintendent Greg Rasmussen said.

When asked to estimate the out-of-pocket expenses for a child to get through the school year, responses from parents ranged from “around $500 a year” from a parent whose children pack their lunch every day to around $3,500 from a parent whose active high schooler is involved in both sports and fine arts as well as academics.

“My feeling is that I want my kids to have a well-rounded education, so most of it, I’m OK with,” said Lori Noga, who has a sophomore and an eighth grader in Hamilton schools. “It gets to the point in the spring where I feel I’ve been nickeled and dimed to death, but that’s just a fight I have with myself.

Janie Rice, whose son Jacob is a junior band member at Middletown High School, said she estimates she spent more than $1,500 last year in just extra curricular and band trips while her husband foot the bill on basic school fees.

“Band is very expensive and this is my third year at it. I don’t think school fees were all that bad,” she said.

Like everything else, the cost of education keeps going up while salaries remain stagnant at best. The schools are aware of the economic realities of the day and say they work hard to not make the cost unbearable for parents.

“In the past five years, we haven’t had any major increases in our school fees,” said Barb Fuerbacher, assistant superintendent for instruction for the Hamilton City School District. “We really don’t want to do that to the public.”

The fee schedule for kindergartners, for instance, for the 2006-07 school year totaled $50.50, while the schedule for this year is $46.50. Other elementary grade levels have seen increases ranging from $7 to $10 over the same time period. The one portion of the fee that is consistent across grade levels, “Consumable supplies/paper,” has risen from $23 to $25.

“Every year, I sit down with the teachers and principals and go over fees for the year before it starts,” Fuerbacher said. “If it needs to be changed, I’ve asked them to justify why they need to be raised.

Students who are on free or reduced lunches are exempt from school fees by the federal law that governs the program, Fuerbacher said. In Hamilton and Middletown, that includes more than 66 percent of the student population. In those cases, the districts absorbs the cost into its general fund.

“If they’re not on free or reduced lunch but still can’t afford it, we’ll work with agencies to get them some help or we can work out payment plans,” Fuerbacher said. “There are sponsors in the community who have paid student fees in the past.”

In Monroe schools, student fees have not gone up in the last several years, said Superintendent Elizabeth Lolli.

“Students receive far more consumable supplies than they pay for in Monroe. However, we understand that parents cannot afford all those items so we use general fund money to pay for them,” Lolli said.

Lolli said her district spent about $79,000 on supplies that are called “fee supplies.” Of that, only about $39,000 was collected from parents, she said.

Other costs

School fees are distinct from the school supplies that vary from school-to-school and grade-to-grade, but include the purchase of everything from pencils and notebooks to contributing to a classroom supply of tissues and anti-bacterial wipes.

The cost of purchasing items on the list can range anywhere from around $10 to up to $30 or $40 a year, but can jump higher for special instruments such as graphic calculators, which are required for upper level math classes.

Morgan Elementary School in the Ross Local School district offers parents the option of ordering a school supplies package on-line that are delivered directly to the school. The cost of the service ranges from $9.57 for a kindergartner boy to $33.44 for a second grade boy. Principal Tom Perry said that the cost is close to what a parent would pay going to a department store, but more convenient.

When a child is involved in sports or certain other extracurricular activities, the out-of-pocket costs can go even higher. It is standard practice for schools to charge a participation fee for sports or for musical groups that go to competitions, for instance.

“It’s not specifically a ‘pay to play’ situation” for the musical groups, said Laurin Sprague, director of fine arts for Hamilton City Schools. “The money doesn’t go to the district, but to the parent organizations so they can buy costumes, pay competition fees, buy music or finance trips.

The fees range from $75 for Fusion, a musical group in which classical instruments are played in a contemporary music format, to $500 to be in Rhapsody in Blue, a show choir that requires a lot of costuming and set design. Being in the marching band costs $175 and Live Wire, the high school version of Fusion, is $200.

Some sports have more out-of-pocket expense than others.

“The fees are a necessary evil,” said Hamilton’s Athletic Director Mike Dellapina. “If schools are going to offer extracurricular activities, they’re already hit hard enough to meet the needs of the students from an academic program.”

Even with financial assistance from parents in the form of fees, the cost still isn’t covered, hence the numerous candle sales, car washes and other fund-raisers that put some of the burden on the students themselves. PTOs buy backpacks and school supplies for students who need them, and local businesses have been known to participate by way of donations or formal Adopt-A-School relationships. The varsity basketball and football programs help support other athletic programs.

The Hamilton High School Boosters contributes around $40,000 a year to provide things the district cannot budget for the high school and freshman school, according to school board member and long-time Booster Anna Harvey.

Teachers and administrators can fill out a form that details “what they want, how much it will cost and how many people it will reach,” Harvey said. The Boosters’ executive board reviews the requests, and makes the allocation, but Harvey said that they have never turned down a request for funds.

“We will not pay a kid’s pay-to-play or for trips unless we feel it’s beneficial to the school,” she said. “But if a kid goes to State for a sport or other activity that they’ve earned the right to go to, and if their parent is a Booster member, we give them $20 or $25 spending money, but that’s the only time we pay for any individual.”