Port Townsend School Board members voted unanimously at their last meeting to waive course supply fees for Port Townsend High School’s 2020-2021 school year.

The school district board of directors approves student fee schedules each year.

Because the uniqueness of the past school year and the impact of COVID-19 on students and their families, PTHS principal Carrie Ehrhardt brought the request to the school board.

Ehrhardt proposed that the course supply fees for art, robotics, culinary arts, and maritime programs not be collected.

“Due to the impact of students receiving instruction outside of the classroom for the majority of the school year, we have spent less on supplies than we normally would. And as a result, we do not need the supplemental funds provided through the collection of student fees for purchasing of additional student supply materials,” Ehrhardt said in her request to the board.

“We saw this as an opportunity to allow our parents to keep that money,” she said in the Zoom meeting.

“We feel like we can be a little generous with our families and not collect those fees,” Ehrhardt added, mentioning the grant funding the school had received.

While the course fees have already been charged to student accounts, the money has not been collected by the school, the principal noted.

The charges will simply be removed from student accounts for the current school year.