After a long and sometimes heated discussion and several defeated motions, school board members Kelly Henrichs and Linda Goff joined Dennis Doris and Ethel Peterson Monday in voting down fee waiver guidelines that would have required individual board approval of every waiver application except for those pertaining to foster children.
Instead, the four succeeded in implementing guidelines that will grant a 50 percent fee waiver to students eligible for free lunches, and a 25 percent reduction for those eligible for reduced lunches.
Goff and Henrichs usually vote with board members Dan Reichenborn, Chris Rostetter and Brian Winter to form a majority that has traditionally defeated the minority bloc of Peterson and Doris.
But after a heated discussion, during which Peterson and Doris almost lost the opportunity to put the question to a vote, Goff and Henrichs joined the two minority members.
Doris and Peterson, who have strongly opposed fees since the board voted to implement them last month, initially attempted to convince fellow board members to waive fees for all students receiving either free or reduced lunch. Goff and Henrichs joined the rest of the board in voting the two down. Reichenborn and Rostetter voiced strong opposition to any fee waivers except for the state-mandated provision applying to foster children, saying that the board should consider the merit of every other application on a case-by-case basis.
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