Board members Jim Powell and Billy N. Ellis last month were assigned the task of looking into the fee increase.
“We have come up with raising the tuition $100 (per out-of-district student),” Ellis said during the Board of Education’s regular monthly meeting Monday night. “For a family that has four children in school … it is a three-child cap. This year there were three families with that many children.”
Ellis said that, by using this maximum, none of the families would have to pay more than $1,050 for their children to attend Chickamauga City Schools.
Superintendent Melody Stansell knew that raising the fee would be the only way to make up some of cut in state funds.
“Our preliminary draft figures of cuts (from the state) for next year are $300,000, and nothing is official yet so there could be more (cuts),” Stansell said. “We needed to study the tuition increase to offset it somewhat.”
Stansell hopes that the upcoming tuition increase will get the school to a level that it can be maintained at for awhile and hopes not to have to increase tuition again.
“The state economy is picking up now, and if it continues to pick up, then we hope to maintain it ($350) for awhile,” she said.
School board chairman D.A. “Corky” Jewell said the board needs to look into current policies to see if any of them should be amended to accommodate a tuition increase.
“I would like to commend Mr. Ellis and Mr. Powell on their equitable figure ($100 increase),” Jewell said.
The board plans to approve the increase at its next monthly meeting on April 12
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