Sharon High seniors enrolled in Honors Advanced Print & Digital Journalism are covering School Committee meetings. The following news story reports on the Jan. 8 meeting, which can be watched online on Sharon TV. (Cover photo from Sharon TV.) School Committee will meet tonight (Feb. 5) on Zoom to discuss and possibly vote on the 2025-2026 school year calendar, among other issues.
By Ena Bordman and Nimita Nayudu, Class of 2025
Families who enroll their children in full-day kindergarten in Sharon Public Schools next fall will continue to pay a fee to the town.
Last month, the School Committee voted 6-1 to keep the $3,635 fee for full-day kindergarten for the 2025-2026 school year. Although they considered families’ concerns about the high fee, the committee ultimately decided to keep it due to budget constraints.
Sharon’s fee is on the higher end of the state’s average public full-day kindergarten fee, ranging from $1,000 to $4,500. Sharon parents have been pushing for the fees to be eliminated, as other towns in Massachusetts, such as Dedham and Quincy, have increasingly been doing.
While the majority of committee members voted to maintain the fee, Daniel Newman took an opposing position. Newman agreed it would be rash, in terms of the town’s budget, to completely eliminate the full-day kindergarten fee, but he would like to begin the process to reduce it.
Noting the increasing budget problems each cycle, Newman believes it would be most beneficial to lower the fees now because they may not have the opportunity later.
Other committee members highlighted the greater fiscal consequences of removing the fees. Vice Chair Avi Shemtov noted that the full-day kindergarten fees bring in around $600,000 annually. Decreasing or removing the fees would have serious repercussions on other parts of the school budget, possibly leading to more staff reductions, which is a problem the committee already has been struggling with.
Allan Motenko, agreeing with Shemtov, believes they need to evaluate the whole budget, not just this one part, to see how the fees compare with other budget issues. Motenko highlighted the importance of comparing priorities, emphasizing the greater need for special education funding over reducing kindergarten fees. He believes that though a lot of families want the fee eliminated, there are many other financial decisions which need to be taken into consideration.
School Committee Secretary Shanna Belenky, acknowledged the negative effect the fees may have had on the 159 families currently enrolled in full-day kindergarten, but emphasized how the loss of revenue would have a greater effect on the town as a whole. Chair Julie Rowe, adding on, explained how $100 off the fee equates to the cost of two teaching positions, showing how consequential even a small reduction may have.
Ultimately the committee sided with the Sharon Public School administration’s recommendation to maintain the fee. Julie Rowe, Avi Shemtov, Shanna Belenky, Jeremy Kay, Allan Motenko, and Adam Shain voted in favor, while Daniel Newman was the only member to vote against.