RHS families and students using online services encounter many fees when using some of the school’s payment methods. Some of these fees go up to 20% of the original price.
One area where these fees occur is on the online student store. The student store charges technology and convenience fees on any order placed through it.
“…it is a company that our district uses for accounting for ASB products, so I’m kind of stuck [with] a bit of an outdated system, but it seems to work for us. I know one thing that students and families don’t like is that there is a convenience fee tacked on to the products, but most websites charge you some sort of processing fee, convenience fee, tax, shipping, so we feel it is like most other online stores,” student store manager Sarah Carstens said.
Some students believe that the current student store is inconvenient to use and has unnecessary fees.
“Yeah, it’s a little tedious, you know, having to set it all up, just to buy something, it’s a little annoying…I don’t really like the fees on there, I think they are a little unnecessary, I wish they would get rid of them but, I guess I understand why they have them,” junior John Vincente said.
Carstens explains why RHS continues to utilize this store regardless of the outdated system and design.
“Although that system is somewhat out of date and limited in regards to graphics, and [being] flashy and up to date…it’s actually a really good accounting program for all of the other day-to-day duties, the account is receivable, payable, and it communicates well with the other programs we already use,” Carstens said.
Another online area of RHS where fees exist is on GoFan, the school’s online ticket system for access to sporting events. This system was introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic as an alternative to paying cash in person, but families are now sometimes required to purchase tickets through GoFan depending on the size of the event. Fees on GoFan can go up to one additional dollar charged per each ticket purchased. Athletic director, Hank Demello, believes that there is still benefits to GoFan despite the fees.
“We’ve noticed this on Friday nights where with both cash and GoFan, the lines that we used to have that were all the way down to the gate, they’re not there anymore. It’s quicker in, quicker out…it’s a convenience thing for some families, it’s real easy to do, you can do it at home, you come to the game, you go to the gate, show your ticket, two buttons pushed, and boom, you’re in…[for] the bigger events there is still going to be cash, but [the events with] small crowd sizes anticipated will probably just use just GoFan,” DeMello said.
Students believe that RHS could utilize more modern services with less fees for event purchases around RHS.
“Yeah, I bet there is something out there that’s a little better than GoFan, you know, there’s got to be a better option somewhere,” Vicente said.
