With a vote of 6 to 1, the Salt Lake City School District is looking to increase travel fees for extracurricular activities by $300.
District officials gathered together on Tuesday night to discuss the proposed increase for the 2022-2023 school year with most being in favor of the idea. With the increase in cost, students could potentially pay around $1,900 per sport and other high school activities.
Board member Mohamed Baayd voted against the increase, saying that there are families out there not wanting to ask for financial help, instead scraping together trying to make up for the fee increase. Baayd says it didn’t feel right to vote in favor of that.
The district says that the $300 is the maximum fee that students can spend and that the increase is to ensure all students can have a bed when traveling. The district also says that depending on the trip, the cost could be less.
Yandary Chatwin, a spokeswoman for the district, says that there are always available resources for students to pull together money for an activity such as fundraising or applications to have fees waived. Chatwin says that the district doesn’t want a lack of funds to be the reason a student gets left out.
A full breakdown of these new extracurricular costs can be seen here.
