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About half dozen people showed up a Virginia Board of Education hearing tonight on proposed school-fees regulations, but only two spoke.

The board is trying to bring uniformity to school fees charged to students. A 2008 state Department of Education survey found that of 83 school systems that responded, 64 charge fees for a variety of things such as band instrument rental, parking, specific courses and technology.

The hearing at James River High School in Chesterfield County was one of three today. The others were held in Chesapeake and Alexandria.

Steven Barton, a 31-year band director at Thomas Dale High School and a parent of two boys, said he supported the board’s proposal to limit and control how schools levy fees and charges.

“However, I am concerned that the practical consequences of the proposal will present an undue burden on our ability to support the successful programs that our children and community have enjoyed for many years,” he told state board members Elizabeth D. Beamer and David L. Johnson.

Under the proposal, school systems could no longer use collected fees to purchase sheet music or pay for visiting artists and entry fees to annual state-sanctioned performance assessments, which are like Standards of Learning tests, Barton said.

He suggested that the board work these items into the term “consumable materials” under the proposal and to allow school divisions to use state textbook funds to purchase sheet music.

“For us, sheet music is our text,” he said.

Sarah A. Geddes, an attorney with the Legal Aid Justice Center’s JustChildren Program, said the Education Department survey showed that few school divisions have formal policies on waiving fees for families struggling financially, and even fewer tell parents about available waivers.

“The proposed regulations are a big improvement over the status quo,” she said. “We know that public schools are facing hard times, but so are families.”

Families should receive written notice of how to request fee waivers and school divisions should be prohibited from withholding class schedules or excluding students from graduating or field trips for non-payment of fees, Geddes said.

The proposed regulations would do just that.

Beamer said citizens have until July 26 to submit comments on the proposed regulations.