Committee votes to raise school facility use fees
The Berlin-Boylston Regional School Committee approved a revised building use fee structure for 2026-27 despite objections it could burden youth sports and PTOs. Superintendent Brent Conway said fees are "seen as covering existing expenses such as utilities" tied to new custodial union costs.
School Committee · Meeting of August 20, 2026
BERLIN — The Berlin-Boylston Regional School Committee approved a revised building use fee structure for 2026-27 despite objections it could burden youth sports and PTOs. Superintendent Brent Conway said fees are "seen as covering existing expenses such as utilities" tied to new custodial union costs. Member Meagan Grill warned the change could "absolutely cripple" volunteer-run youth basketball and softball programs that have long used school gyms for free.
The committee amended the schedule to exempt "Berlin-Boylston recreational youth teams" from hourly space fees before passing the full package on a vote the chair announced as 4-2-1. The district also accepted a $146,000 PRISM literacy grant and a $15,000 career-pathways planning grant, and gave a first read, with no vote, to an updated student cell phone policy that member Jackelyn Hoffses called insufficiently strict.
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Source: the School Committee meeting of August 20, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.
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