The Weatherly School Board heard concerns over activity fundraising at the regular meeting Monday night.

During public comment, a mother and part-time district substitute, Lisa Bartel, addressed the board regarding students' participation in activity fundraising.Bartel said it appears, "The same students show up all the time.""Even if the student doesn't raise funds, they still benefit the same. It's very upsetting when you have kids trying really hard and always showing up then kids who don't and they get the exact same reward," she said."We do a lot of fundraising," she said. "Maybe if they can't sell they could at least put time in running a stand or just show up to do something. The advisers could keep track. There are people who can't sell, and I get that, but in four years they should have to show up and help the rest of the class."Discussion continued of how the school would be able to track and enforce the idea."Some schools use a fee if students don't want to participate in fundraising," said board treasurer Georgeanne Herling."Unfortunately there really is no clean-cut answer," board President Girard Fewins said. "We do a lot of fundraising here. We'll be consistently stepping on each other's toes.""Lisa is saying they could at least put time in," board member William Knepper said.The board said they would consider the idea."It's just so difficult and unfair to the kids who donate their time. The other kids know they're going to benefit, so why show up?" Bartel said.The board will hold a special meeting in February for the upcoming budget to discuss raising the tax index."Just because we agree to look at going above the index doesn't mean we are going to," Fewins said.School CPA and business manager David Marsiglio agreed and said, "It doesn't necessarily mean we'll raise taxes, but we will have the meeting after the budget meeting in January."The board also accepted the resignation of Mary Stoffel, a high school MDS aide, for the past 10 years. The district will also begin its interview process for a new high school softball coach next month.Board member Matthew vonFrisch said lunch accounts are continuing to dip into the negative because of purchasing one-off items."Everyone should be able to have lunches, but my daughter has been able to buy a la carte even though the account went below zero. That shouldn't be allowed. It's just digging us a bigger hole for next year," he said.Marsiglio said he has issued 10 letters to parents who have overdue lunch bills of $50 or more."I received one back with payment," he said."We talked about this in September and now we're talking about finally going to magistrates. I thought it would've been a quicker turnaround to show we're not messing around," Fewins said.The board agreed to continue with the process to gather repayment of lunch bills.