The Yellow Board

School Districts charging private lesson teachers a fee.

Posted by My Kingdom for a good REED! on 11/27/2022, 2:10 pm

Our district announced on Friday before the break that we private lesson teachers would be charged a fee to teach there in the new year. No reason was given for this or no explanation as to what the money would be used for. Several years ago for about a decade we had to pay a nominal facility rental fee because if memory serves we were told a band parent somewhere in texas was ticked off at a director and the only way they could get them into trouble was because private contractors (ie: Private lesson teachers) were making money on school property. And the state either passed legislation or regulation, so we had to rent the facility in order to make money there. Eventually we were told it was overturned and the fee stopped. Do any PL teachers out there pay a fee to their district and do any of your districts charge PL teachers a fee? How much is it? And what does it go toward?

Re: School Districts charging private lesson teachers a fee.

Posted by yup on 11/30/2022, 11:41 pm, in reply to "School Districts charging private lesson teachers a fee. "

Cy-Fair ISD charges $2 per student per week that you teach on-campus. So if you have 40 weekly students $80/week goes to the district.

Re: School Districts charging private lesson teachers a fee.

Posted by yes on 11/29/2022, 8:19 pm, in reply to "School Districts charging private lesson teachers a fee. "

Large district in the houston area. Facility usage fee. It is pretty small though.

Re: School Districts charging private lesson teachers a fee.

Posted by Actually... on 11/28/2022, 12:10 pm, in reply to "School Districts charging private lesson teachers a fee. "

the case was about a band director that "required" students in the top band to take private lessons. It was a lawyers kid and lots of stuff became involved with it, the main point being, if my kid is good enough to make the top band having never taken private lessons why does he/she have to now. Then it became if you want my kid to take private lessons you, the band director, do it because that is what my taxes are paying your salary for.

It went to TEA and part of the fallout was that private lesson teachers could no longer collect their lesson fees directly. Some districts collected the money directly to the business office, some collected thru the band boosters when then forwarded it to the district. From that point districts cut checks based on documentation that was submitted. As a result all income was reported to IRS and many districts did collect a fee for using the ISD facilities and the fact the the business office was now involved.

At the time TMEA and UIL leaders fought and worked with TEA to keep us from losing our in school private lesson programs completely. TEA came really close to banning all during the school day private lessons. Over time things relaxed and we have gone back to way it was.

This all happened some time in the early 1990's.

Lunch time that's all I can put in right now.

Re: School Districts charging private lesson teachers a fee.

Posted by yeah on 11/30/2022, 12:56 pm, in reply to "Re: School Districts charging private lesson teachers a fee. "

Things like this happen because of the stupidity and arrogance of some band directors. Then a ruling comes down from TEA or the state and all programs have to suffer due to the arrogance and elitism of a few. Funny how you rarely hear or see choir and orchestra directors causing problems for their colleagues. Oh, I'm sure someone can google and dig up something, but it's RARE.

Re: School Districts charging private lesson teachers a fee.

Posted by Yep... on 11/30/2022, 4:27 pm, in reply to "Re: School Districts charging private lesson teachers a fee. "

Agreed. Many of the rules and regulations that we ALL have to follow were put in place to solve what were, primarily, 6A problems.

To extend this beyond the band hall. Several years ago, I lived and taught in an area where there was a large school district that would keep complaining to anyone who would listen that they were a "poor" district, and the state needed to change the funding formula so that they could get more money. Then, all of the sudden, they built a new middle school building, and extensively renovated other buildings. The problem? They paid for everything in CASH. The state audited their books, and discovered that the district had been hording money for years while at the same time claiming to be destitute. Well, the state looked into changing the funding formula alright...they were planning on cutting everyone's funding because, "Well if XYZ ISD is hording money, *everyone* is hording money...so they don't need as much from the state."

« Back to index

[ The Yellow Board ]