Monroe Chat

Monroe Local Schools increase pay-to-participate fees

By Denise Wilson
Staff Writer
Updated 7:11 AM Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Beginning this school year, parents of middle- and high school student athletes will have to pay more for their kids to play sports.

The Monroe Board of Education approved increasing the pay-to-participate fees $25 for more than 200 athletes for the 2009-2010 school year during its meeting on Monday, June 22. The move was made to offset the costs of athletics, district officials said.

Athletic Director Dave Bauer outlined the proposal to the board during an earlier meeting this month and said it was the result of the district experiencing increases in league dues and tournament, invitational, equipment and uniform expenses.

Under the plan, fees for high school athletes will rise from $75 to $100 for the first sport. To play a second and third sport will cost an additional $75 apiece.

Fees for middle school athletes will increase from $50 to $75 for the first sport and cost an additional $50 for the second and third sport.

The plan also calls for individual and family caps to cost $175 and $300 to participate in sports.

The board also approved during the meeting renaming the plan play to participate instead of the previous pay to play fee and to increase the individual and family cap pay to participate to $175 for an individual athlete and $300 for a family.

The proposal previously called for the elimination of the family and individual $150 cap to participate in sports.

Board member Chris Snyder recommended the cap change.

“I just look at extracurricular as an extension of the classroom and I don’t want to financially penalize our kids from taking part in that,” he said.

“Plus, if you don’t have a cap and a child plays football and basketball for instance, their family might say, ‘well that’s it for you for the year’ and then the track team suffers, and then the kids doesn’t play track. I’m trying not to put an obstacle in their way.”

In other news, the board pulled from its agenda a resolution to proceed with the submission to place a substitute tax levy on the November ballot.

The board is scheduled to vote on placing a continuing substitute levy on the Nov. 3 ballot during its next meeting on July 20, said board Treasurer Kelley Thorpe.

She said the board delayed taking action on the levy “because we didn’t get our millage rates from the (Butler) county auditor’s (office) in timely enough manner to include for tonight.”

The proposal calls for the district to combine three emergency levies expiring in 2010 and 2011 — totaling $3,549,698 per year — into substitute levies on the ballot.

The move means that any new growth in the district, especially commercial growth, will increase levy revenue, district officials said.

The deadline to place a levy on the November ballot is Aug. 10, Thorpe said.

Yee Gads! Aside from uniform costs etc ., Pay to participate is going to cost Families an incredulous amount of money, especially if you have more than one Child in a sports program.

HRHPatey wrote:Yee Gads! Aside from uniform costs etc ., Pay to participate is going to cost Families an incredulous amount of money, especially if you have more than one Child in a sports program.

And if they are in multiple sports. I remember some of my classmates participated in 3 sports.....fortunately, we didn't have to pay-to-play.

IMO a wise decision. I don't think they have any hopes of passing a levy regardless of the incentives.

Beasly wrote:IMO a wise decision. I don't think they have any hopes of passing a levy regardless of the incentives.

why do you think they will not pass a levy this fall?

Just gut feeling......I don't think there has been enough clarity brought forth and Monroeites are a little sketchy about MLS at the moment. MLS is losing top notch people right and left. And now with the rumors of Middletown wooing Dr. Lolli.
I am all for whatever they want to attempt. I just don't think that unless they go door to door again, with, this time informed informers, it will fail again.
MLS cannot reply upon one valued board member to get the word out on a forum.


Again JMO's. I wish MLS the best.

I don't believe most Monroeites (oooh, fabo term!) are aware of all the the loses or indeed the rumor mill suggesting Dr. Lolli is being wooed...
Most student Parents, have a limited knowledge about the fundamentals involved with finance and staff issues... It is those of us who read / blog that see a bigger picture.

There has to be a major push to draw attention to every Citizen in order to heighten awareness., even with that notion, any quest to get more $'s might fail just based on the economic situation as it stands.

Beasly wrote:Just gut feeling......I don't think there has been enough clarity brought forth and Monroeites are a little sketchy about MLS at the moment. MLS is losing top notch people right and left. And now with the rumors of Middletown wooing Dr. Lolli.
I am all for whatever they want to attempt. I just don't think that unless they go door to door again, with, this time informed informers, it will fail again.
MLS cannot reply upon one valued board member to get the word out on a forum.


Again JMO's. I wish MLS the best.

I'm thinking a failure will be based more on the economy than on "selling". It's been on the news and in the papers, as a replacement levy. Hopefully, we are wrong and it passes. This can only help Monroe Schools and the community at large.

Yes, hopefully we are wrong and it passes.

Although consider this. I myself usually never watch local news to of seen this nor take a daily paper of any type. After being a lifelong Urinal subscriber i couldnt tolerate the slander and non coverage of Monroe. Most usually i never get the Observer, if I do its a soggy mess at the end of the driveway and unreadable. The only way I have known about this is by local online forums. And as i have been doing some studies for myself, a city forum takes between 10-15% of the total population of any given city ( Monroe is around 12-13% - between both Monroe's forums).
I hope the news is getting out to the other 10,000 people that now call this home.

And yes, everything is totally based upon the economy at this point in time. Ever rising Govt. taxes, Luxuries such as tobacco and alcohol, Gasoline, etc.......
Anything is an uphill battle at the moment considering money and people afraid it will cost them any more.

From my understanding this levy wouldn't cost the taxpayers anymore right?
If this is true I could see MLS doing more than has been done and have a justification. Although, this always has two sides. One that agree and ones that disagree.

I would really like Loaners take on all of this.

Again JMO's & some studies....hehehe

Here are a few facts as I see them.

The school gets a set amount from the property taxes as was voted on with emergency levies. The new businesses (Cincinnati premium outlets mall, Homedepot, Joe Morgan Honda, etc) and any new homes built will still pay the percentage in properties taxes but due to the tax structure the money would be used to reduce the current taxes you and I are paying now.

This may sound like a good deal because when do you get to reduce your taxes? These taxes would be reduced across all property owners and the difference will be small to each owner. If you have 1000 properties and you get 5 more then the amount of money collected by those 5 will then be spread over the 1000. The savings to the home owner will be very small. The school would need to come back and ask for the money to operate the schools as the district grows.

If we pass the substitute levy we will not see the reduction but we will see the additional money going to our schools. Currently the numbers I have heard is over 500,000 in extra money to the school.

If this levy does not pass we will lose the chance to give the schools this money for ever. This is additional money each year not just this one time.

I support this substitute levy and would encourage all of you to do the same. I would be glad to answer any questions you have either on the forum on in person, email etc.

Thank you for posting that Tracy .... I believe I needed to see it in black and white (so to speak!)

Also, I want to post that no retail business have a tax abatemnt. The mall will be paying a full % of the property taxes as will the hoinda dealer and any new resturants that are built. This will alos increase the money we will be able to add to the school with out raising the taxes. This can be a big deal for our schools and current residents as we continue to develope the commerical areas in Monroe.

Vote yes

It's also a one shot deal, while it won't cost residents a dime more it captures new millage for the commercial sector. That amount right now will be an additional $500,000 per year residents don't have to produce. If it fails, they can never try to collect that free money again.

I asked Dr. Lolli point blank her intentions, she indicated her plans were to stay here.

As for the pay to participate, the fee's will help cover some of the costs, understand athletes currently pay a substantial amount to play anyway. I have a student that plays a couple of sports and it costs me about $5-600 a year for him to play plus the fee's. The individual teams wear you out with fund raisers in addition to the fee's charged. Some teams also have a "required" materials the kids are required to buy so it's not like they play for free anyway. I think most parents would rather just pay the higher fee and not be worn out with all the other "stuff".

I swore I would stay out of this, but here goes...

The reason it is a one shot deal is because the current levies must be transferred to the new one before the new businesses hit the tax rolls. Passing the new levy in November will base our taxes on the number of homes and businesses at the time of the vote. Remember- our current levies are for fixed dollar amounts. When new homes and business come in (not existing sales, as they already are assessed), the money the district gets stays the same, its just divided up by more taxpayers. So the mall and other new businesses will not increase the money to the schools..it will stay the same as they get right now. When we vote on a levy, we approve and exact dollar amount-regardless of how many of us pay it, and they cannot collect more than we approve.

The new levy...and this is the important part.......

Will keep our current taxes the same as they are now (our taxes will not go up)
AND
Any new taxes from the new businesses (Mall, car dealership, restraunts, etc) AFTER the levy is passed will be ADDED to the amount that the district collects for operations.

This is a huge change in how growing school districts like monroe have been able to collect operating revenue, and has not been possible in the past. The economy is unlikely to improve any time in the near future. This is a way to bring additional money to the schools without having to vote a new levy in and increase our taxes.

So...If everyone is as tired of the endless levy fight as I am, take the time to really research and understand the opportunity we have right now. Miss it, and the district will have no choice but to place more levies in the future. This doesn't totally solve the funding problems, but is definately eases the burden on all of us. Those not supporting future levies should jump all over this one!!

Call the school treasurer or Superintendent for the specific answers to your questions. They are more than willing to explain it to anyone who asks.

Hope this helps.

Loaner that was a great explanation....... I think that this will levy change will be very beneficial to the schools and not hit the whole community with more taxes.

It is very important to say that no taxes will go up..... The only thing it will do is keep them from going down pennies a year based on new sales.

Again as you said what people need to understand is that the school just gets more money that what they asked for initially..... The way the levies are now they only get the $ they asked for with no increases when the community grows.

I support this levy.