Okotoks family challenges ‘bullying’ over school fees
CALGARY An Okotoks family says they are being “bullied” into paying school fees, with their children banned from competing in sports and attending the graduation dance until they do.
For two years, Tanya and Warren Stasiuk have refused to pay certain fees for their children attending Foothills Composite High School, citing the Alberta School Act, which doesn’t permit fees for anything other than “instructional supplies or materials.”
They take issue with a locker fee, school council fees, school activity fee, tech fees, option fees, gym clothing, commons fee and a physical education course fee, among others. The Foothills School Division maintains the fees are legitimate and appropriate.
For 17-year-old Landry Stasiuk, who is in Grade 12, the total is $188. For Marley, 15, in Grade 10, the fees amount to $293.
“With five kids, the fees cost us a lot. But this is based on the principle,” said Tanya Stasiuk. “We pay for the things our children voluntarily join. We choose for them to play sports, so we pay those fees. But we’ve always wondered why we’re paying all these other fees.”
In the March 2017 Alberta budget, Education Minister David Eggen announced a bill to remove fees for supplies and materials.
If passed, school boards would no longer be allowed to charge for textbooks, workbooks, photocopying, printing and paper, and commons fees. It would not take effect until the 2017-18 school year.
“Alberta Education has been in contact with the Stasiuk family, and I understand their concerns,” Eggen said Tuesday.
He encouraged the family to reach out if they are upset with how they are being treated.
“We realize that school fees are a burden for families across the province and that is why our government introduced Bill 1,” he said.
“For too long, fees remained unregulated under the previous government. We are working to fix that.”
Stasiuk also questions the disparity in fees across the province. When her eldest son in 2015 decided to finish high school in their former town of Stirling, his school fees were $85. In Okotoks, the fees would have been $350.
She began to investigate how much fees would be for all five children in both school divisions. In Stirling, the fees would have totalled $254. In the Foothills division, they would be $1,136.
“We were floored. So that’s when we really got into asking how they
In Stirling, the fees for all five children would have totalled $254. In the Foothills division, they would be $1,136.
can do this in Alberta.”
Last year, when the Stasiuks didn’t pay, they were told it would go to a collections agency. Last week, the school drew a line in the sand.
Landry will not be allowed to buy a prom ticket and both girls cannot compete with their teams until all fees are paid. They were informed of this last Friday after one daughter and her father had travelled on a bus with the cheer team to Athabasca for provincials. She was to compete on Saturday.
“It was horrible for her. She was super upset,” said Stasiuk. “They’re bullying us and now using our kids as a pawn to get us to pay.”
Foothills School Division superintendent John Bailey says the fees are permitted and believes it comes down to philosophical differences.
“The difficulty we’re having here, from my perspective, is this seems to be a family that’s not working with us to lower their expenses. Instead, they seem to stand firmly that all fee charges are illegal and should be paid through provincial funding, and that’s a different argument.”
Bailey says the school is within its right to keep students from competing in sports if fees are not paid, and this was made clear to all parents at the beginning of the recent rugby season.
“Sports teams are a voluntary component or activity.”
He also noted that Landry is able to attend the graduation ceremony but other components, such as a dance or banquet, can be withheld.
“I would express some sorrow that this issue seems to be affecting the children when it’s the adults who seem to have the issue,” said Bailey.
In light of graduation being five weeks away and rugby season already underway, the Stasiuks say they have no choice but to pay the fees.
“We have tried to deal with the school and division to no avail. We are one family fighting an entire division on our own,” said Stasiuk.