Members of the public were invited to share their comments, questions or concerns about the school budget at a Dartmouth School Committee meeting on Monday, March 21.

One such speaker, who identified himself as Christian Gwozdz-Silveira, a former student, came to the public hearing to speak out against student parking fees which he said passed an unfair maintenance fee on to a select group of students.

“The parking lot fees are paying for the entire lot when students only use a third of it,” he said. “It’s not an issue of funding, it’s an issue of right and wrong.”

Gwozdz-Silveira said he has been championing the issue for five years and that he hoped this would be the last year he would have to do it.

Co-presidents of the Dartmouth Educators Association, Renee Vieira and Jodi Parisi, also spoke at the hearing, first listing a series of questions before transitioning to advocating for higher wages for teachers, teachers assistants and substitutes.

“Add to this the cost of our health insurance and we are not offering competitive wages,” said Vieira, who quoted John Nunes from a previous meeting saying, “you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.”

The School Committee said they would seek to answer the co-presidents’ questions at a later meeting after they had time to look into them.