As Spencer parents and guardians registered their children for classes on Monday and Tuesday, those enrolling middle and high school students were treated to a surprise: They were not charged a new "activity transportation fee." As approved by board members early last month, the $25 and $35 fees for secondary-level students were designed to cover a portion of activity transportation costs, as well as pay for the cost of a student's activity ticket.

A declaratory order issued Aug. 4 by Judy Jeffrey, director of the Iowa Department of Education, was at the root of the district's move to not charge the activity transportation fee. The ruling, which was petitioned for by the Ames Community School District, answered that central Iowa district's request for an explanation surrounding the legality of certain student fees.

In Jeffrey's declaratory order, "allowable fees" were defined as those relating to textbooks, school supplies, eye and ear protective devices, summer school courses, driver education courses and discretionary transportation.

Specifically under the discretionary transportation heading, an appendix to the ruling outlined that elementary students who reside more than two miles and secondary students who reside more than three miles from their respective attendance centers are not necessarily entitled to free transportation. The Department of Education's order goes on to state, "A district does not have to provide transportation to resident students who are not entitled to free transportation. If a district offers such discretionary transportation, it may charge a fee which may not exceed its actual costs.

"The unsettled question is whether transportation associated with extracurricular activities is discretionary transportation for which a fee may be changed. ... We now resolve the issue by giving the benefit of the doubt to the students who wish to participate in these activities. We recognize that most, if not all, schools require participants in extracurricular activities to use the school's transportation to and from 'away' contests. Thus, a fee for the cost of transportation comes dangerously close to 'pay to play,' which is not allowed in Iowa."

Per Ames' petition, Jeffrey also outlined in her declaratory order that student activity tickets must be a "voluntary" purchase item.

"We have a lot of people purchasing activity passes; those dollars still go into the activity account," Spencer Superintendent Greg Ebeling said. "Before, we used to have everybody out for activities buy an activity pass. A ton of districts do it and had done it. Last year was actually the first year we did that. It was a way to recoup some dollars for transportation costs; because everybody's looking for ways to supplement that cost. But, we found out we couldn't do that, so we went to the activity transportation fee. ... Well now, the Department of Education just put out, because they were challenged by some other district, that that was not legal. The Department of Education had never put out a ruling on it before. So this is its declaratory ruling, saying, 'No, you can't (charge an activity transportation fee).'"

The department's declaratory order also ruled that costs associated with field trips may not be passed along to students if the trip is part of a class: "When a field trip is part of a class, the activity is part of instruction, and therefore falls under tuition, not an allowable fee," the order stated.

As diesel prices, meanwhile, averaged about $3.60 a gallon this year, school districts may see prices climb to $4.50 a gallon during the 2008-09 year.

"Fuel costs come right out of the general fund," Terry Voy of the Iowa Association of School Boards said. "Every cent spent on fuel siphons money away from the education of children, from books, teachers and salaries."

"There's not really a way you can just flat out tax for it," Ebeling added. "There are things you can do with discretionary transportation that we don't currently do, though. In other words, right now we have discretionary busing all over the city of Spencer, and there is no charge for that discretionary busing. We'll have to keep looking at that. Throughout this year, it'll be something that we'll look at and say, 'OK, this is what it costs. We might have to charge.' But for now, registration is done and over with; it's a done deal. It is going to be what it is this year."