Immaculate Conception School
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Bookkeeper Mrs. Beverly Gaffney (908) 895-1106 Financial Office Information: As a parochial school, the
existence of Immaculate Conception School is dependent upon tuition and fees
along with parish subsidy and fundraisers. Each
of these is detailed below. TUITION Tuition is paid in one of
three ways. Parents either prepay
tuition in full directly to the school by July 10th before
the school year. Or, parents pay
tuition through the FACTS tuition management program.
Through FACTS parents may opt to pay either twice a year or spread their
tuition payments out over 10 months. Tuition amounts and
discounts are outlined at or before registration in January.
We ask that you decide how you are going to pay by completing a Tuition
Payment Preference Form and a FACTS Automatic Tuition Payment Agreement, if
applicable. Forms are due back to school in February.
Your return of the forms prompts the generation of your invoice which is
sent out no later than the middle of June. Every
family receives a bill. FEES Book fees are used to
purchase workbooks used by each student during the course of the school year, as
well as to purchase textbooks not provided by the government book loan program.
Book fees are $125 per student grades K – 7, $150 for grade 8. Art fees are used to
purchase supplies for our dedicated art program. Art fees are $25 per student
grades K - 8. Stationery Fees vary by grade and are used to provide the students with a supply of items some of which are only available for purchase through our stationery store. The fees vary by grade because items included are purchased at the discretion of the teachers for your child’s grade. Additional items which may be included in this fee are grade specific classroom tools and grade specific periodicals. Amounts for stationery fees are not available in advance however; they are usually under $100. Students may need to replenish supplies throughout the school year. Pre-K art supply fee covers the various snack, art, craft and periodical expenses unique to this age group. The fee is $125 per student. The
Capital Reserve Fee is a one time fee charged to all new incoming students,
the current fee is $100. This fee is
collected by the school, but subsequently rolled over to the Church of the
Immaculate Conception. The Church
accumulates the fees in a reserve fund which will be used to offset costs
associated with future capital improvement projects in and around the school.
HSA/Alliance fee is charged
annually. All funds collected are paid to the Diocese of Metuchen for the Diocesan
HSA and NJ Alliance. All fees are billed along with
tuition if you are prepaying, or separately if you are paying through FACTS.
All fees are due July 10th. PARISH
SUBSIDY Students Grades K – 8,
registered at a Parish other than Immaculate Conception, Should a pastor refuse to
pay, the subsidy becomes the responsibility of the parents.
Non-Catholic students are charged the Subsidy amount of $800 per student
with their other school fees. Families of students
registered at Immaculate Conception, Somerville do not fill out a Tuition
Assistance Eligibility Form; however, their status as practicing Catholics in
good standing is reviewed by the Pastor. TUITION
ASSISTANCE In an effort to make
Catholic education affordable to all who are interested in attending, various
procedures have been established to ensure fairness in the distribution of
tuition assistance. All those interested in
seeking tuition assistance must begin by completing a Diocesan Tuition
Assistance Application. This
application is made available in all of the schools each February.
You only need to complete one application per family, even if you have
children in other schools (such as, high school).
The application must be fully completed, copies of your Tax Return for
the prior year must be attached, and your pastor must sign the form.
Make two copies of the entire application including all supporting
documents and then you mail it, along with your check to PSAS (a service
employed by the Diocese to compile the data received from all of the families
that apply). Application packages are always due to PSAS by the end of March.
Late applications are disqualified. It
is the responsibility of the parents (not the bookkeeper, or parish center
staff) to follow through on obtaining pastor’s signature, copying and mailing
of the application. Retain one copy of the
application package for your records. The
second copy should be dropped off at Immaculate Conception Parish Center
directed to the attention of the finance committee, and marked personal and
confidential. Once your diocesan
assistance amount (if any) has been granted, you and the school will receive
notification from the Diocese. The
school will adjust your tuition amount to reflect this diocesan assistance.
Once notified the finance committee meets and, using the application
package copy you dropped at the Although assistance is
available we caution all who apply not to “count on the assistance.”
The help you receive should make the financial burden bearable, but you
should not expect to not have to pay. While
your applications are being processed you may cross over the July 10th
deadline. You should contact your
bookkeeper in this situation to discuss options. Failure to complete the
Diocesan tuition assistance application greatly impacts your qualifying for
assistance from the parish. You must
complete the Diocesan application, and get it in on time, to be best considered
for parish assistance. FUNDRAISERS The one fund raiser that
can directly impact your personal tuition bill is the Home and School’s
voucher/scrip program. At the
beginning of the school year you will receive a special envelope and order forms
to be used to order gift cards through school.
If you send in $100 and request Shop Rite Gift cards, you will receive
$100 in gift cards back the same day. This
fund raiser costs you nothing. AND,
the Home and School tracks your purchases and at the end of each month, gives
you back 2% of your purchases in the form of tuition credits.
Tuition credits can be used anytime you have to pay for something at ICS
(except lunch tickets). The best
thing to do with tuition credits is to accumulate them for the entire school
year and when the fees are due, send in your tuition credits!
Those credits add up quickly and some parents avoid fees altogether using
their tuition credits. The
voucher/scrip program raises money specifically to pay for the computer lab. Please support the few
fundraisers that so greatly help our school and help yourself at the same time. Questions regarding any of
the information above should be directed to the school bookkeeper, Mrs.
Beverly Gaffney, (908)895-1106. **Failure to make tuition
payment arrangements will result in non-admittance to the school.
Failure to pay tuition will result in dismissal from the school. |
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