The MCCSC November 2023 referendum, which was narrowly passed by voters, provides free school supplies and no fee for Advanced Placement (AP) exams. Students, teachers, and families are saving money while the school system is attempting to reduce economic learning barriers. This raised the current referendum tax rate by approximately 3.5 cents per $100 of assessed property value. In July 2024, Chalkbeat.org reported that public school teachers spent an average of $500 on classroom school supplies annually.
“I would say that’s an accurate expenditure. I’ve had some years in the past where I’ve spent much more.” said Susanna Shelton, a Latin and English teacher at South.
In the spring of last school year, teachers were asked to put in orders for supplies that they thought would be useful to their students. Shelton said, “At the high school level [the referendum funding has] been pretty good for covering the things my students need.” In this first year of supplies being financially covered for students, not all will take advantage of this opportunity. “It’s a mix, I mean I have a lot of older students who have their habits about what they like and have their favorite supplies…I’ve had some students who’ve come and picked up supplies – it’s good as a supplement for a lot of kids,” said Shelton. This program will continue to help teachers and families financially for years to come.
Not only does the referendum funding cover this year’s exams, but last year’s exams were refunded after testing had finished. Achieving passing grades on AP exams can save students a considerable amount of money in their college years. In the past, math, English, and science exams were already subsidized by the state and not the full fee. “I think occasionally if I had a student who had six AP classes, all those added up, even if most were $10, that would be kinda a lot of money,” said John Livingston, a guidance counselor at South who handles the administration of AP testing. When asked if this new fee coverage will cause more students to sign up for their classes’ exams this year, Livingston said, “Yes, I think that without a doubt our exam numbers will be up this year…we were already batting 90%, but it will go up a little bit.”
This year, the process for signing up for AP exams will be slightly different. There is no more payment and there is an extra step in the process as the guidance office staff used to register students for the exams after payment was made by parents. This year, students will join their class with the code that each AP teacher provides (step one), then students will need to select the register for exam button and complete the registration (step two).
