District working to collect debts

By Erik Buchinger

Dozens of families owe money to the Clintonville Public School District.

The district’s business manager, Holly Burr, provided an update on the families that have yet to pay their fees at the Clintonville School Board meeting on April 8.

“Originally a year ago, you had submitted 68 family accounts totaling a little over $56,000 to collections,” Burr said. “These are accounts that were only over $500. As of today, 43 of those accounts still have some portion of a balance remaining.”

Burr said she is not sure how many of the accounts are full and how many paid some of the cost, but she said 43 families still owe something.

“Six of those families currently have no students in the school district any longer,” Burr said.

Dyb said the district does not have current addresses on file for a number of families, so there is no way to contact them.

“Over $28,000 worth of bills that were older than two years old had no current students in the district, and most of them did not have current addresses,” Burr said.

Burr said there are more students inactive from the school district, but several have siblings currently attending. Burr plans to send out letters to families with outstanding fees owed to the district.

If the families qualify for free or reduced meals through the National School Lunch Program or have additional extenuating financial situations, they may request some or all of the student’s registration and course fees be waived.

“Thirty-eight of the families have fees that if they requested, the fees could be waived per our current procedures,” Burr said.

The request must be in writing and include the student’s name and fees being requested to be waived, including the year.

Fines for damaged or missing school property cannot be waived.

To qualify for the waiver, families would have needed to have been eligible for free or reduced lunch at the time the fee was incurred.

Other payment options include paying online using a checking account, by credit card or by debit card. The district office has a payment plan option available, too.

To avoid further collection action, families must contact the district office immediately by completing at least one of these three options or by paying the account in full.

The letter states any outstanding balances must be paid in full prior to a student’s participation in the graduation ceremony.

The district office will move forward with further collection action for any families it did not hear from as of Monday, April 15. Contact Burr at 715-823-7215 ext. 2603 with questions.

“We’re just looking for ways to get the very large current balance down to a reasonable number,” Burr said.

School Board president Ben Huber said he agrees with the district’s approach to collect outstanding fees.

“I don’t hear anybody saying anything against any recommendations you’ve made, so I think the direction you’re going seems reasonable,” Huber said.