Beginning next year, it will be free for students who want to try their hands at any level one art classes.

The USD 497 school board last month voted to eliminate fees for introductory art classes. The fees ranged from $25 to $45. Fees for advanced electives were capped at $25.

The change has created mixed feelings. While art teachers hope more students will join the classes there are also concerns on how the elimination of fees will impact teachers’ budgets.

“It doesn’t affect me, seeing as I’m graduating this year,” said Isabella Waite, a senior in Advanced Placement 2-D Design. “However, it’ll make it easier for kids to take entry level art classes and not worry about having to pay the fine for it.”

Waite agrees with the fee being eliminated and believes that it will benefit students.

“But the classroom setting may be different,” Waite said.

Currently, some students may not enroll in the classes because they may not be able to afford the fees. Other students’ parents make them pay for the classes themselves.

“I think it’s a good thing that fees don’t stand in the way of someone who wants to take the class,” drawing teacher Wendy Vertacnik said.

While $25 may not be much to some people, the loss of funds are a major turn-off to others.

“I’m not exactly sure how they’re going to make up for that funding when it seems like that it just keeps getting less and less money per student,” photography teacher Angelia Perkins said.

The fees were used for art teachers’ classroom budgets. Art supplies are expensive, Perkins said.

Paper, pastels, charcoal pencils, canson paper, pens and felt-tipped markers are needed materials for drawing classes. For photography classes, the list includes matte board, developing chemicals and printing paper. Other fine art classes require additional materials.

“They did not tell us at all until it was actually already passed by the board,” Perkins said. “It definitely will [affect the curriculum]. There’s always a problem with funding, so I’m not exactly sure  how they’re going to make up for that funding.”

To make up for the loss of fees, the district said it would reallocate revenue from fees charged to support instructional materials.

Perkins notes that the fees helped her resupply every semester to allow students to work on projects. With the possibility of having more students and less money, she said things may change in the future. For now, she said, it’s hard to know the true impact.

“Well, we probably won’t be able to figure that out until a few years down the road, if things do disappear,” Perkins said. “But it could mean that they’re not able to do some of the certain art things, whether it’s ceramics, whether it’s drawing, whether it’s film, whether it’s printing. It could mean that kids just across the board are unable to try different things throughout the high school level to know what they may want to do for the rest of their life.”