Dear ESF Parents,

The Board of the PA (Parent’s Association) of ESF (European School Frankfurt) has grave concerns as to the consequences of the decision with regard to Category III Fees taken at the December 3-5 2012 Board of Governors meeting.

Namely, the future CAT III school fees will significantly increase while the siblings' reduction will significantly decrease as of the beginning of the school year 2013/2014 applicable to all new pupils not enrolled in the school year 2012/2013.

Information on school fees can be found on the website of the European Schools.

We anticipate that the combined effect of both measures will substantially increase the cost for CAT III families, especially those  families with children at ESF who intend to enroll the younger brothers and sisters. As is, the proposed increases in fees are also applicable to the children of families who already have children in the ES (European System).

New Fee proposals

• Annual adaptation of the school fees
  One shot increase by 25% with school autonomy of +/- 5% followed by 2% (= inflation rate)
• New School fee reductions for siblings:
• Reduction 1st sibling 20% (instead of 50%)
• Reduction following siblings 40%

The ESF Parents' Association, as well as the other Parents' Associations of the 'Type I' Schools represented by Interparents (the association of all Parents associations), actively contributed to the CAT III Fees Working Group and were supported by the Directors' representative. It was made quite clear by many delegations (including the Directors and Interparents) at the meeting and throughout the working group, that there could be catastrophic consequences for certain schools and sections. The delegations further requested maintening the status quo and opposing the 'new pupils' vs. 'new families' concept.
Unfortunately, the final result / decision is disappointing for the parents (and for the Directors!) as the decisions taken are quite close to the very drastic changes proposed by the Commission.
Although, on one side the proposal of the Commission has not been fully accepted, we are very sorry that we could not avoid that the families which have already a pupil in the school will have to pay more in the future for the sibling not yet enrolled in the school.

We are concerned that the measures are likely to negatively impact the interest of prospective new CAT III candidate families from applying to the ESF. It could also lead to negative consequences for all parents in the two smaller sections at our school, (French and Italian), who depend upon a steady intake of CAT III pupils to ensure a viable pedagogical offer, especially in the Secondary school.
The underlying issue is the 'pedagogical and social viability' due to very small pupil numbers in some classes: eg some classes in Primary currently have only 12-14 pupils and we are concerned that if the 'supply' of CAT III dries up, such classes certainly will face major challenges in their subject and option choices later in the Secondary School.

Interparents are already investigating all possibilities including seeking legal advice.

The ESF PA has addressed this issue with the ESF Direction and kindly invited them to use their decision making power with respect to the determination of the level of school fees for 'new' CAT III pupils and limit the increase to only +20% for next school year (i.e. the minimal increase allowed by the BoG decision).  

The PA board is very happy that the ESF Directorate shares our view and concerns in respect to the impact of this raise of CAT III school fees for the Italian and French section, and for diversity at the ESF in general.

The Board of the ESF Parents' Association