Pay to Participate

Potential charges for clubs

With the recent budget cuts Park has made, Park’s Finance Advisory Committee (FAC) is advising the School Board to implement a $25 fee for participation in clubs in the 2023–24 school year.

Members of the FAC offered explanations of the new fee, stating that this would not apply to “service clubs” like SOAR and JSU. Superintendent Astein Osei said the method the FAC uses to determine costs is to mirror fees put in place by nearby school districts.

“Each year our Finance Advisory Committee looks at what our current fee structure is,” Osei said. “Most years, they'll look around at neighboring school districts, and they try to gauge where we are at compared to other places.”

Director of Business Services and leader of FAC Patricia Magnuson said that there’s a lot of responsibility that comes with having after-school clubs and implementing payments would organize students.

“The administration at the high school has been trying to get a handle on clubs so we understand who's enrolled in clubs, which advisers are getting a stipend and the clubs that they're running,” Magnuson said. “First and foremost is to make sure students are safe in the building. If something would happen to the building, we want to just make sure we know who's here to keep students safe.”

Junior and student intern for the FAC Alicia Margalli said one of the ways the money from the $25 fees would be used is for paying teacher stipends.

“If a teacher is running a club, they are required to be paid for it,” Margalli said. “The school is asking for $25 in order to pay for the club adviser.”

Osei said he expects the School Board will put a plan in place to help students who have trouble paying fees.

“I'm confident that we're not going to allow club fees to exclude students from participating and I would expect that there will be a provision in place for students that don't have access to $25,” Osei said.

Margalli said the committee is coming up with ways to get students to continue joining clubs when the fee goes into effect.

I think fees will exclude a lot of people who can’t afford them from joining clubs.” “

Jonny Gruen, junior

“We are trying to come up with ideas to fix that problem,” Margalli said. “We are trying to come up with a one-day pass, where we give students the opportunity to go to a club for free so they can see what the club is before joining it and paying for it.”

Spanish club adviser Hanna Anderson said there are more factors that should be considered when putting this fee in place, including the amount of times a club meets.

“It is challenging because some clubs meet more often than others,” Anderson said. “It'd be nice if there'll be a little bit of differentiation between clubs (and) less for clubs who don’t meet as regularly.”

Magnuson said the fees will not go directly to the club, instead they will cover the cost of running a club in the school.

“We cannot charge fees for just participating in a club,” Magnuson said. “The fees have to go toward covering some administrative costs. They will be used to cover the cost of the stipend for teachers. We cannot put the excess into the club.”

Average club fees in metro-area school districts

Breakfast and lunch: a no-cost munch

Minnesota passes statewide ‘lunchbox tax cut’ law

Starting next school year, every student will be able to get breakfast and lunch meals at Park completely free of charge.

Governor Tim Walz passed into law the proposed “lunchbox tax cut” bill that makes breakfast and lunch meals free for all students on a statewide level March 17. Park plans to implement this law and begin to offer free breakfasts and lunches at the start of the 2023–2024 school year.

The law will apply to all students, regardless of previous meal plan or family’s economic status. Junior Jake Ignatowicz said the law will give more students access to nutrition, a necessity for successful learning.

“These free lunches will provide a lot more people with the sort of nutrition that they need in order to perform better in their academic abilities and in order to foster a better environment that shows that no person will be hungry,” Ignatowicz said. “It helps more people to get a basic human right, regardless of income status for their family.”

The money will be provided from the Minnesota government through taxes. Media Center specialist Alison Tsuchiya Theiler said the free meals will significantly affect Park.

“It’s not coming out of St. Louis Park’s budget, so that might have an impact,” Tsuchiya Theiler said. “It’ll impact students because everyone will have the ability to get breakfast and lunch for free — and that’s huge.”

According to Principal LaNisha Paddock, this law will enable Park to provide more healthy meals to more students.

“I call it brain food,” Paddock said. “It’s that important for students to have healthy meals that are going to allow them to engage at high levels when they’re in the classroom.”

Ignatowicz said he was concerned that portion sizes and lunch quality may suffer due to the law.

“It’s just something that you kind of have to deal with if you want to get food here and you don’t have the time or means to make the food at home,” Ignatowicz said. “Personally, I don’t think (portions will be) enough, and I’m not sure how this set chunk of money that they’re getting to buy these lunches next year will affect the options that we have.”

According to Paddock, more information on how Park’s breakfast and lunch options will be affected will become available as we near the law going into effect.

“There’ll be more information coming because it’s not until next school year,” Paddock said. “But there’ll be more information on what that’s actually going to look like. It doesn’t mean every single thing in the cafeteria is just free now.”

In The Spotlight

Senior advocates for equitable access to higher education

Kevin Martinez Herrera

What led you to this path of advocacy?

My passion for this subject started my junior year when I took Revisiting Ethnic Studies with Ms. Cisco and IB History of the Americas with Mrs. Merkle. They are both wonderful teachers, and in their own ways, they opened my eyes to racial disparities, racial injustice and looking at our world and society through a racial lens. Being a voice and leader of the Latino Students Association and responsible for meeting with the principal, superintendent and School Board to create equality and change has always been important to me and is what has led me to discover the importance of advocacy.