Tuesday, October 25, 2022

Dear Before School & Extended Day Program Families,

We are excited to announce that there is now an option for families to make their Before School and/or Extended Day Program tuition payments online!

Online payments can be made via the City Hall Systems payment platform. This is the same system the City of Watertown uses for other online bill pay such as excise tax and water/sewer bills. Payment can be made via eCheck (electronic check) or via credit and debit card. Please note there is a convenience fee charged for online payments. The fee for eChecks is $0.50 per transaction and the fee for credit and debit cards is 2.95% (minimum fee is $1.00) per transaction.

We are not requiring payments to be made online. You may continue to pay by handing a physical check or money order to your school's Before School and/or Extended Day site coordinator or by dropping off your payment at the payment drop-off box located at the Phillips Administration Building parking lot if preferred.

How to make a payment online:

1. To make a payment online, please visit https://epay.cityhallsystems.com/selection to access the City Hall Systems payment platform.

2. You will be prompted to Select Your State and Municipality. Use the dropdown menus to select Massachusetts and Watertown, MA

3. Use the Select Bill Type menu on the left-hand side to select the program you are paying tuition for. Select either Community Education Before School Program (K-5) or Community Education Extended Day Program (K-5) (there are specific instructions for PreK Extended Day families detailed further below)

4. Select the Program You Would Like to Make a Payment For

5. Select or Enter the Payment You Would Like to Make OR select Custom Tuition Amount (Read below for full details on when to use the Custom Tuition Amount option)

6. Enter Student First Name

7. Enter Student Last Name

8. Enter Parent Guardian First & Last Name AND fill out all required Contact Information fields

9. Select Add to Cart

10. From here, you can either select Add Additional Items to Cart OR Proceed to Checkout

11. If you have more than one student, and/or your student(s) attend more than one program, you can add each student’s tuition for each program they attend to the cart, then make one payment at the end.

12. Once you are ready to pay, select Proceed to Checkout

13. On the checkout screen, you will be prompted to either complete the Use This Form to Pay by eCheck OR Use This Form to Pay by Credit or Debit Card. The total for each payment method including fees will be listed.

Benefits of creating an account through City Hall Systems:

• You do not have to create an account through City Hall Systems to make an online payment.

• If you create an account you have access to eBilling, AutoPay, bill history, and other features.

Important note for families making a payment for more than one student:

• Please note it is important that you only add a payment for one student at a time. For example, if you have two students who attend the program, you should select the full fee for one student, enter their name, complete the form and add that payment to your cart. Then you would select Add Additional Items to Cart and fill out the form for your second student. For the second student, you would select the sibling tuition rate. It does not matter which of your students is listed as the full fee student and which of your students is listed as the discounted sibling student rate.

PreK Extended Day Payment Information (for PreK Extended Day Families Only):

• If your student is enrolled in the PreK Extended Day Program at Hosmer, you can make your payments online. To do so:

• Please select Community Education Extended Day Program (K-5) from the Bill Type Menu

• Select Hosmer Extended Day Program as the program you’d like to make a payment for

• If your student attends full time (2:00 pm - 5:30 pm schedule) and their tuition amount is listed (either their regular rate or their sibling rate) you can select that payment amount and proceed with completing the rest of the form and adding it to the cart

• If your student attends part-time (2:00 pm - 4:00 pm schedule), please select Custom Tuition Amount then enter their tuition amount in the Total Payment box and proceed with completing the rest of the form and adding it to the cart

If you are a family that splits tuition payments between one or more parents/guardians:

• If you split who pays your student’s tuition, you can make a partial tuition payment for your student. Please use the Custom Tuition Amount selection then enter your student’s tuition amount in the Total Payment box and proceed with completing the rest of the form and adding it to the cart.

If you have a credit or owe more than your regular tuition payment due to an underpayment or an added drop-in fee:

• You can make a payment different than the standard tuition payment options provided. Please use the Custom Tuition Amount selection then enter your student’s tuition amount in the Total Payment box and proceed with completing the rest of the form and adding it to the cart.

If you wish to pay tuition for more than one month at a time:

• You can make a tuition payment for more than one month and up to the full year. To do so, please use the Custom Tuition Amount selection then enter your student’s tuition amount in the Total Payment box and proceed with completing the rest of the form and adding it to the cart. You do not need to add future months to the cart individually. This can be done by entering one custom total amount for the full payment amount you want to make.

For WPS Employees:

• If you are a WPS employee with a student enrolled in the Before School and/or Extended Day Program, please use the Custom Tuition Amount selection then enter your student’s tuition amount in the Total Payment box and proceed with completing the rest of the form and adding it to the cart. If you have more than one student and/or your student attends more than one program, please make sure to add each student and each program’s tuition to the cart individually. You can make one payment at the end once all items have been added to your cart.

Other important notes and anticipated frequently asked questions:

• We are not requiring payments to be made online. You can continue to pay by handing a physical check or money order to your student’s site coordinator or by dropping off your payment at the payment drop-off box located at the Phillips Administration Building parking lot.

• You do not need to create a login and password on the City Hall Systems payment platform. Online payments can be made without a My Account login.

• You can add payments for the Before School Program AND the Extended Day Program into the same cart to make one payment for both programs. These payments should be added to the cart individually then you can make one total payment.

• As noted above, there is a convenience fee automatically charged for online payments. The fee for eChecks is $0.50 per transaction and the fee for credit and debit cards is 2.95% (minimum fee is $1.00) per transaction.

• At this time, online payments are only available for Before School and Extended Day Program tuition. We are not able to accept online payments for other Watertown Community Education Programs such as Courses for Kids, Adult and Community Education, Vacation Week Programs, and the Summer Explorations Program. We are looking into adding online payments for those programs in the near future and will make an announcement when and if we are able to add an online payment option for those programs in the future. Stay tuned!

We are very excited to roll out this payment option to families! If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me at debora.cornelius@watertown.k12.ma.us.

All my best,

Debi Cornelius