nickel and dime
@3SnuggleBunnies (16374)
United States
August 30, 2012 9:33am CST
My youngest is going into 4k this fall at a private school only chartered for 4k. I just got an e-mail saying if the kids want to stay after their 11:30 dismissal that I can pay an extra $3 so he can attend the 30 minute recess! Well gee wiz I can go to a local park on the way home for him to play or wait for his siblings to get out of school. I know all the schools public or private are hard up but really charging for recess?!?!
3 people like this
10 responses
@thinkingoutloud (6127)
• Canada
30 Aug 12
I have to admit to not being surprised :( Schools charge for everything now. I would imagine, if you asked, that they would tell you that the extra 30-minute recess is supervised and that your $3 goes to the cost of paying a person or people to do that supervision. In our school board, there is a yearly fee that is charge for "lunch time supervision." I think the last time I paid it, it was $125 PER student (with only a small discount if a family has multiple children enrolled in the same school)! The kicker is that this "supervision" applies to all grades of high school - grades 7 through 11 - this isn't elementary school. A large number of the students don't even eat in the cafeteria (or inside the school at all, for that matter, because they are permitted to leave the premises during lunch break). The fee isn't optional, either... even parents who live very close to the school have been made to pay it and, most days, their kids walk home and eat at home! 
2 people like this
@3SnuggleBunnies (16374)
• United States
30 Aug 12
Sounds like you guys get ripped off! Do they atleast employ someone to sit at the door and check the students who leave campus for lunch in and out?
Thankfully this recess is optional, but still that's nuts.
2 people like this
@thinkingoutloud (6127)
• Canada
30 Aug 12
Nope! That really gets to me. There is no check-out and check-back-in process at lunch time at the high school. The bell rings, the students get their jackets and such from their lockers and off they go (exactly the same as it was when I went to high school there years ago!). Teachers do take classroom attendance each period so, if someone was there in the morning and doesn't come back after lunch, it gets noted... but I don't see how THAT is any use of the exorbitant "supervision fee." There are security people -- they walk through the cafeteria, around the school and outside on the grounds on a regular basis (at lunch, during recess, etc.) but they aren't supervising ANY of the kids that have gone to McD's or Wendy's or any of the number of nearby pizza places to eat... and all those kids' parents still have to pay the fee.
1 person likes this
@cynthiann (18612)
• Jamaica
30 Aug 12
Nothing is free anymore and if this is a private school then they are going to have to employ someone to look after the children. A sad reality. Also, perhaps many working mothers would be glad to pay knowing tghat their child is being taken care of. i do not think that they are charging for recess but charging to supervise the children in a safe environment. Blessings
2 people like this
@AmbiePam (120630)
• United States
30 Aug 12
Yes, that is what my school did, and I did attend a private school. Someone would watch the kids for two hours after school was out. A lot of the parents were working, so being able to pick their kids up at 5pm instead of 3pm was very helpful. Others just saw it as time they could have to themselves without their children.
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
30 Aug 12
I have to agree with Savvypat. Being a private school you can't expect them to keep kids an extra half hour for free, you know. It would be the same if it were like a daycare or something. I actually think $3 for an extra half an hour is reasonable. There are probably a lot of parents that would benefit from it.
1 person likes this
@savypat (20216)
• United States
30 Aug 12
What you are seeing here is the new reality. Schools must pay for supervision of the play grounds and a 3.00 charge for an extra 30 mins of supervision may be reasonable for parents who need that extra 30 mins to work in their day.
@inmyopinion (213)
•
31 Aug 12
That does seem a little bit silly. I assume that is $3 per day, which adds up over a week and a year. You have to wonder what goes on in the meetings where they decide that they need to raise funds and then someone makes the suggestion - lets charge for recess. At what point does everyone at the meeting agree that it is a good idea and give it the go ahead. It amazes me sometimes.
@danishcanadian (28954)
• Canada
30 Aug 12
That's absolutely nuts, and dangerous. What if something happened to him at the park that would not have happened on school property?
@winterose (39887)
• Canada
31 Aug 12
they still have to pay someone for supervision of the children during that time, and it is not in their budget.
@AmbiePam (120630)
• United States
30 Aug 12
Perhaps it is similar to what one of my schools did. If the parents could not get off work to pick up their child at 3pm, they could pay more for someone to watch them in the gym. So for two hours, it was pretty much a recess. They couldn't stay after 5pm, the parents had to pick them up by then. But there were dozens of kids whose parents paid the extra money so they could stay after school.
But three dollars for half an hour? That sounds silly.
@angelkarah050182 (4980)
• Philippines
31 Aug 12
Oh, that's bad. Even recess is already charged $3. Schools now are always asking for money. Every move there's money involved. Happy mylotting.
