Students entered Walpole High School this month amid a severe economic depression, disconcerting school budget figures, and an increase in fees in nearly everything from activities to school lunches. Students will now pay $60 per year for the benefit of participating in an unlimited number of extracurricular activities, an increase from $30 per year last year. The increase, part of an effort by school administrators to close a substantial $30,000 gap in the school activities budget keeps Walpole still standing out among area school districts for having a strong and active extracurricular activities program.
The fee increases, while inconvenient, and coming at a time when lunch prices and athletic fees are also already high, will maintain Walpole’s expansive list of school-sponsored activities. Students still have the ability to take a variety of great groups, meet new friends, foster relationships with teachers, and learn important skills outside of class. The price students pay is more than reasonable, and the variety of clubs available range in type from dance and drama to foreign languages and film.
At a time when the school system itself is struggling to hire new teachers, and with a bleaker budget anticipated next year, it is incredible that Walpole High has been able to operate organizations that far exceed those of other area towns. A number of the extracurricular clubs are unique, like the Robotics Club, Film Festival, and Dance Company, all unusual in schools across the state. In Dedham, Foxborough, and Norwood, for example, students have only a few extracurricular selections from which to choose from, with not nearly as much variety as Walpole. Walpole students are lucky to be paying a truly bargain price to be in the company of extraordinary teachers who want to pass on their passions to their students in extraordinary clubs.
Walpole’s activity fees are actually extremely low compared to other Massachusetts towns. Students in Wakefield and Winthrop, towns with populations comparable to Walpole, have activity fees over $100 per year, and still do not provide nearly as many programs as Walpole does.
It is far too easy to paint the school system as profiting from the fee increase, as they are the institution implementing the change. Teachers running clubs run them out of passion and for the smiles they see on students’ faces, and do not actually generate substantial profit from their tasks. One teacher who exemplifies this passion is Mr. Michael Alan, English teacher and founder of the renowned Walpole High School Film Festival, the first of its kind in Massachusetts. Mr. Alan has been running the festival since 2002, building it from the ground up and turning it into the organization it is today. He started out not receiving any money for his work, but says he later asked school administration for a stipend not because he needed the extra dollars, but because he wanted to have the support of the school behind him. “I needed to know the school valued what I was doing,” he said.
Indeed, the film festival is one of Walpole’s most popular, most unique, and most enriching extracurricular clubs, instructing kids in everything from video production to event planning. Mr. Alan contributes a substantial amount of time on the festival, and earns very little back from his stipend for the time he spends with students assisting with their films and coordinating the festival.
For teachers like Mr. Alan, the smiles he sees on the faces of the students he works with every day show that his work is valuable to these students. For a mere $60, students are learning and having fun in an encouraging atmosphere – and that truly is a bargain – even in difficult budget conditions.
