Knox County parents may be frustrated they haven’t been able to pay school fees online yet this year, but when a new site is up and running, parents and the school system could save money.

Knox County Schools is switching vendors for the online payment system, said Carly Harrington, director of public affairs for the school system.

Not only will the change allow the school system to waive the 4% “convenience fee” now charged for online school fee payments, Harrington said, it will save the school system about $9,000 a year.

“The new system is being rolled out in phases, with the first 33 schools expected to be ready to begin using it later this week,” Harrington said. “We hope to have the remaining schools online in the coming months.”

The former site was managed by Virginia-based Online School Management Systems. The new payment site, School Cash Online, is managed by Canadian company KEV Group. KEV Group bought out another software company the school system was already using for accounting/receipting services, Harrington said, so it made financial and logistical sense to switch to the same company for school fees.

The site can be used to pay annual school fees as well as fees related to activities like the fine arts or athletics.