Sooo annoyed! Tuition should cover these things!!!

amother

Dodgerblue

Sun, Aug 14 2016, 8:12 pm

My dd school has the nerve to ask for so many extra fees not included in tuition. There's $20 book few, $25 nit fee, $10 shabbos party fee and the big $500 lunch fee. Why are these not included in the outrageously high tuition?!? Oh, and another extra that isn't included, is after hours, which is an extra $100 a month, im seriously gonna go broke from all this!! As I was reading all this info in the booklet that the school sent, I felt myself getting madder and madder!

animeme

Sun, Aug 14 2016, 8:18 pm

Do you have to buy lunch? Can you have a friend who's a nurse or checker check your child for nits and write a note?

I imagine after care is a large burden for you. Hatzlachah to you.

amother

Powderblue

Sun, Aug 14 2016, 9:13 pm

it's really annoying when schools do that Sad

Some things make sense though- after care will be separate because not everyone is getting it. It's an "extra" service and therefore an "extra" fee.

amother

Apricot

Sun, Aug 14 2016, 9:18 pm

The $35 snack fee really made me mad especially because my daughter was on head start that year.
I think they do it because they know most of us will pay with out a fuss. I'm sure if I would have called up and yelled they would have told me not to pay.

We have a $10 nit fee, which is actually something I'm really happy about because I heard that some schools stopped doing nit checking.

avimom

Sun, Aug 14 2016, 9:24 pm

lol must be same school as OP!! I got the note on Friday and DH and I have been flipping out about it since then!! The should lower tuition if these things are all not included... I want to try to send home lunch but I've heard from neighbors that if a home lunch kid wants the school lunch, they give it to her and mark it down. Then, they charge you for it if it was too many times :-( I also don't want her to be the only one with home lunch!

amother

cornflower

Sun, Aug 14 2016, 9:36 pm

Are the knit check woman volunteers or are they getting paid? If they're getting paid, does anyone know how much? On average, How much time are they spending on each girl?

flowerpower

Sun, Aug 14 2016, 9:37 pm

What does a snack fee mean? For which grades? Preschool and first grade bring 2 big snack/cookies for the class every rosh chodesh. They use it throughout the month.

flowerpower

Sun, Aug 14 2016, 9:39 pm

amother wrote:

Are the knit check woman volunteers or are they getting paid? If they're getting paid, does anyone know how much? On average, How much time are they spending on each girl?

They get paid. They come once a month to check everyones head.

tryinghard

Sun, Aug 14 2016, 9:41 pm

I guess it depends what the school is like - I never got school lunch, my siblings and I always brought from home, and we were far from the only ones. Will your kid be the only one of her friends bringing lunch from home? If it's just a convenience thing for you, though, it's hard to say that the school needs to be providing that gratis.

nicole81

Sun, Aug 14 2016, 10:15 pm

My friend told me that she got her daughter's school to eliminate the lunch fee from her bill since the school participates in the federal lunch program and she qualifies for free lunch as per the income cutoff. I think most schools take money from the government for lunches...

We send to 4 different schools and only one of them includes lunch. Two have a nit fee. None have book fees. Only one school has an after hours option, and of course they charge. I wouldn't expect them to provide free babysitting if we needed it.

Hashem_Yaazor

Sun, Aug 14 2016, 10:22 pm

Schools provide scholarships to many, many parents. Some of these fees cannot be waived for financial assistance ans it goes directly to the program/service it is for and not the overall budget. Snack fee is used directly for snacks (in my case it's for preschoolers who get school snacks). Nit fees I have not dealt with but I assume it's to directly pay the lice checker(s).

amother

Apricot

Sun, Aug 14 2016, 10:35 pm

flowerpower wrote:

What does a snack fee mean? For which grades? Preschool and first grade bring 2 big snack/cookies for the class every rosh chodesh. They use it throughout the month.

In preschool they don't allow the children to bring their own snack instead they provide it and charge $35.

amother

Apricot

Sun, Aug 14 2016, 10:37 pm

amother wrote:

Are the knit check woman volunteers or are they getting paid? If they're getting paid, does anyone know how much? On average, How much time are they spending on each girl?

In my daughter's school they get paid.It takes them a minute to check each kid. If they find nits the child is sent home and can't come back to school with out a note from a Nit checker that the child no longer has nits.

amother

cornflower

Sun, Aug 14 2016, 11:08 pm

Hashem_Yaazor wrote:

The reason I doubt this is because my boys yeshiva charges $10 for nit check. It takes around 3 minutes to check each kid which means the woman are checking at least 15 heads an hour. I'm sure they're not getting paid $150 and hour.

nicole81

Sun, Aug 14 2016, 11:22 pm

amother wrote:

Do they only come once a year? Or do they come a second time after winter break, too?

Four years ago when my daughter had nits, I paid $100 for a "lice lady' to check and clean her hair. It was about an hour worth of work, so it's not such a far reach to imagine one getting paid $150/hr. Many schools do checks at least twice a year, so in that case, it cuts the rate to $75/hr. I don't really see the profit for the school here.

cnc

Sun, Aug 14 2016, 11:22 pm

amother wrote:

In my daughter's school its a YEARLY fee and they get checked MONTHLY so technically it's 2 dollars per check. (I'm almost sure the fee is $20).

amother

Dodgerblue

Sun, Aug 14 2016, 11:23 pm

Op here. The reason I'm annoyed is because some of these fees such as book fee and shabbos party, should be included as part of tuition as far as I'm concerned. The lunch fee is annoying since most of the other schools I know of, have free lunches for everyone, even if not eligible. And the after hours fee is in my opinion just a way to squeeze some more money out of parents, since the amount of tuition they charge does not justify having school only until 2:30, which is very early for 90 percent of the parents. If it would be school until 3:30 plus an extra hour until 4:30, I could understand. But ending at 2:30 and charging more for that extra time Is just a shtick to ask for more moolah