Many families have been struggling to meet the never-ending fees associated with their children’s participation in athletics and extracurricular activities in Mendon and Upton. For several years, our school district fees have been substantially higher than in most neighborboring towns.
Another benefit of Voting Yes for passage of the Proposition 2 1/2 override vote is the lowering of those fees at both Nipmuc and Miscoe Hill.
Nipmuc athletic fees would be reduced from $375 to $175 per sport, a rate more competitive with neighboring towns.
Fees for athletics and extracurricular programs (such as drama, student council, jazz band, etc,) at Miscoe will be reduced or completely eliminated.
For some families this could easily negate the increase in their property tax bill.
Please visit the Forward 15 website for more information at www.forward15.org
We can only pass this vote if each one of you votes YES.
Please vote YES in Mendon on May 12th (at Miscoe Hill) and Upton on May 18th (at Nipmuc).
Thank you!
Jennifer Copley Downing – Upton
Forward 15 Committee Member
Nipmuc Warriors Booster Club Member
UPTON DAILY 
Thank you for your thoughtful comments. I respect your opinion.
I wanted to clarify that the lowering of extracurricular school activities and athletic fees is a small side benefit of this current override proposition. It is also a significantly small percent of the budget. It is significant, however, to those who have been paying the fees for the last five years.
In 2010 the district was faced with cutting activities and athletics altogether or funding them through fees. It was the higher fees that kept the activities and athletics alive. Now the excessive fees are leaving kids out of these activiites. Not everyone feels comfortable asking for the scholarship funds to participate. Others leave the district to go to schools with lesser fees and take their tax dollars with them.
Again it gets back to the goal of providing a competitive education for the children of our district, protecting the resale value of our homes along with the overall community good of supporting our towns and schools and being proud of where we come from.
I agree that $375 is a lot of money. But is that fee subsidizing another part of the school budget, or is it the true cost of participating in a sport? Because if that’s the actual cost of being a player on a sports team (which includes transportation, coaching, field/gym maintenance, team equipment), then isn’t it right for the family of the student playing the sport to pay for it? Otherwise, you’re asking families of all the kids who didn’t make the team to help pay for the kid who did make it. You’re asking the families of kids who do non-school sports like dance or karate to pay for that sport out-of-pocket and then subsidize another kid’s sport on top of that. If you look at extracurricular activities not attached to a school, then $375 is actually pretty reasonable. It looks like a season of dance at one Upton studio is $450 for a one-hour weekly class, for example. So yes, other towns might have cheaper school sports, but that doesn’t mean we have to follow in their footsteps with subsidies which frankly, seem a little unfair. We’re picking winners and losers in town based not only on whether they have kids who attend school here, but whether those kids happen to do school sports or non-school sports.