Parking fees considered

The Scarborough School Board is expected to take up the issue of high school parking fees at its Aug. 16 meeting. As proposed, students would be charged $100 per school year, or $25 per quarter, to park at the high school. The fee was first floated at a school board retreat in April. Then, the suggestion was for $100 per quarter. The school department’s $37.4 million budget, approved by voters May 15, is up $1.7 million. It included a $50,000 revenue line for parking fees as well as a possible expansion of the fee students must pay to participate in extracurricular activities – currently set at $100 per student, with a $300 cap per family. In an Aug. 1 press release, Superintendent Dr. George Entwistle III called his budget “responsible and reasonable,” adding that the school board “did not make the decision lightly” to consider a parking fee.