Stevenson High School student fees for activity passes and parking for the 2023-2024 school year will increase by $10, also Pepsi products will be in the vending machines, all after being approved by the school board at its meeting last month.
The Stevenson High School District 125 school board — with Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire as the lone school in the district — voted 7-0 at the Nov. 21 meeting in favor of the fee increases. The additional costs will not impact daily parking or the main student fees when they take effect starting with the 2023-2024 school year.
Board members also approved a new five-year contract with Pepsi and Yami Vending for Pepsi products to be used in all of the district’s vending machines.
“We’re going to keep all of our fees flat for this particular school year with the exception of four: parking, the activity pass, play and musical events, and athletic events,” said Sean Carney, assistant superintendent for business.
He said productions are expensive to run, adding “we don’t even come close to breaking even.”
The activity pass fee, he said, does help offset some of the costs of productions and athletic events.
The activity pass includes some of the events run through student activities as well as all in-house sporting events, with the exception sectionals or regionals, he said
“We’ve held these fees constant for the last four years as best as we can,” Carney said. “We anticipate keeping these fees flat for another three to four years as well.”
Carney said student parking fees will also increase to $15 for a season, $30 to park in two of the activity and sports seasons of fall, winter and spring.
“The main reason for that is our seal coating bid expired,” Carney said, adding the district is going out to bid with its feeder schools to keep costs down. “We’ve been forewarned materials have gotten significantly more expensive.”
The district also recently added another 100 parking spots this year with plans to add more next year, he said. With larger lots, there’s more security which also increases costs.
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The board also voted 7-0 to approve two new contracts with PepsiCo Partners and Yami Fresh vending. Carney said the district will receive a 30% rebate on every dollar sold in the vending machines through the contracts’ Dec. 21, 2027 expiration. Pepsi products include various types of water, teas, sports drinks, sodas and more.
“Our No. 1 selling product by far is water in any size or container. That probably makes up 75% of our sales,” Carney said in response to concerns about healthy choices for students. “What we don’t want to see in our vending machines are those high surgery products, those products won’t be in there. We also won’t have energy drinks in there.”
Also presented at the meeting was an enrollment report updatem which stated Stevenson High School currently has 4,496 students. District officials said the county is what the demographer, DecisionInsite, predicted. It is also anticipated that enrollment could increase to 4,700 or 4,800 students in a couple years, based on the number of students currently at Stevenson’s feeder elementary school districts.
A formal report is expected sometime in December.
Elizabeth Owens-Schiele is a freelancer.