Back to school: a tale of three families.

Education is a family affair at the home of Jim and Louise Baird.Jim is an elementary education professor at Brigham Young University. Louise is an elementary curriculum specialist for the Provo School District.

They are the parents of 11 children, six of whom are in college. And this year, they'll also have a child at each level of the Provo School District - Marie, 11, a fifth-grader at Canyon Crest Elementary; Robert, 12, a seventh-grader at Farrer Junior High School; and Sarah, 16, a junior at Timpview High School.

The Baird children think the only thing their parents ever talk about is education - curriculum, career ladders, school technology, etc.

The children say their views on education have been shaped by their parents' examples, although Marie admits that sometimes a conversation about something other than school surfaces on at least one side of the family dinner table.Alarms went off every 20 minutes at Carol Batchelor's home Tuesday morning beginning at 5 a.m.

Four students attending Timpview High School this year make an earlymorning, staggered shower routine a must. Between her water bill and her children's school fees, Batchelor's wallet will take a soaking this year.

Batchelor, a single parent who works as a statistician at National Semiconductor, will pay about $519 for her four children - James, a freshman; Denise and Melinda, juniors; and Jared, a senior - to attend Timpview.

The children are involved in a minimal number of extracurricular classes - chorus, drama and, later in the year, softball and track. Batchelor used to live in California "where there aren't any fees at all."

"There is not a class that doesn't have a fee," she said. "Where is it going?"

Timpview raises approximately $80,000 by charging each of its 2,000 or so students a $40 textbook fee.

"Do they really use $80,000 for textbooks every single year for Timpview High?" Batchelor said.Like Carol Batchelor, Joanne and Rey L. Baird will be sending a small army to Timpview this year: Janette, a freshman; Dan, a junior; and Sarah, a senior.

The Baird children all have lockers in the same hall and say they'll be watching out for one another during the school year.

It's the second time that Joanne and Rey have had three students at once in high school.

"But the first time we had three in high school the cost was not quite what it is now," Joanne Baird said. "It's escalated astronomically."

All three Baird children worked this summer to earn money for school clothes and to help pay registration fees. Joanne estimates school clothes will cost about $200 per child, while school fees will total more than $600.

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That's not counting school supplies - notebooks, paper, pencils, and charges for dances and football games.

"Sometimes I get a little bit angry that it is so costly," Joanne said. "It's way out of proportion in my thinking."

Still, when Joanne says the beginning of a school year means "tears and laughter" she is not bemoaning her empty wallet.

"I'm always sad when the kids go back to school," she said. "We do a lot of things together as a family.

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