MOORPARK : State Calls School District Fee Illegal

Less than two weeks after the Moorpark school district instituted a fee for bus transportation to extracurricular activities this fall, the state Education Department notified the district that it was illegal, an attorney for the department said Wednesday.

But school district officials said Wednesday they were not aware of any communication from the state.

The Moorpark school board on Aug. 27 approved the $50 fee for bus transportation to extracurricular activities such as sports and band events.

A deputy counsel for the state Education Department said she called Assistant Supt. Carmela Vignocchi on Sept. 5 to advise her that the fee is illegal. Deputy Counsel Joanne Lowe, who said she learned about the fee from a local newspaper article, said she told Vignocchi to advise the school board.

Lowe said she followed up the phone call with a letter to Vignocchi on Sept. 9.

The Education Department sent a similar letter to the Simi Valley school district, and the Simi school board Tuesday rescinded the district’s transportation fee for extracurricular activities.

Vignocchi has been on vacation since Oct. 1 and could not be reached for comment.

Supt. Thomas Duffy said he was not aware of a letter from the state. He also questioned whether the phone call occurred. “If that had occurred, she would have talked to me about that,” Duffy said, referring to Vignocchi. “If the state calls, we respond.”

School board members also said they had not heard of any communication from the state about the fee.

A 1984 state Supreme Court decision, Hartzell vs. Connell, established that charging students for extracurricular activities violates the constitutional guarantee of a free education, Lowe said.

While schools cannot charge students for participating in extracurricular activities, they can charge for transporting students who are in the audience at the event, such as a football game, Lowe said.

School board members said they expected to discuss the issue at their next meeting Tuesday.

If Moorpark rescinds the fee, it would not be the first time the district has backtracked in charging for transportation to extracurricular events. The Moorpark school district charged bus fees for extracurricular activities from 1984 to 1989, but stopped after similar fees in other districts were challenged in suits.

The school district spends an estimated $48,000 a year transporting students to extracurricular activities. The $50 fees were expected to cover about half of the total cost.