BURKEonBOARD

(Oct. 6, 2008) – I’ve heard from a few parents who have heartburn with how school fundraisers are handled in our schools. I must admit, I never gave the matter a second thought except that when one of our kids brings a fundraising kit home, I take it away until homework is done.

The concerns I heard, though, were about the time taken during the school day to train kids to be good little fundraisers. Who to call (”Make sure you call your grandparents and aunts and uncles.”) and what great prizes they could earn if they sell so much of this or that.

I suppose it stands to reason that class time would be sacrificed to indoctrinate the junior sales folk because what kid wouldn’t swap math class for anything else short of a trip to the dentist? It never occurred to me, though, that that was actually happening.

I’m interested in hearing what you know about how kids are used in various fundraising efforts that are sanctioned by the schools and school district. Send your thoughts to me at tim@burke4board.com and let me know what you know about the practices in the schools your kids attend.

The school district does have a policy about fundraising (you can read it here on the district website). It talks about fundraising as “an established and generally accepted practice within the district and community. It has been used as a means to obtain funding and resources for programs and activities considered beneficial, but not typically funded in the district’s budget.”

It lays out guidelines and approval processes for fundraising activities that can be sanctioned by the district and building administrators, and it seems perfectly reasonable.

But it is silent on when students can be recruited to the fundraising efforts and whether it is acceptable to use class time for fundraiser training.

What do you know about fundraising practices in your school and what do think of them? Please let me know (tim@burke4board.com).

One thing I think I’d be interested in looking into if elected to the board is adding a section to the district fundraising policy that required that parents be advised of such activities before they occur and perhaps even that parents be required to provide affirmative permission for their child to forgo class instruction to attend fundraising class. Perhaps we might look at restricting fundraising activities to certain grade levels, say middle school on up (current policy speaks of elementary aged fundraising). And along with the application process to get fundraising efforts approved, a requirement for a post event report to verify how much was raised and how the funds were actually used.

I admit, it’s a tricky subject because I know there is real benefit from the proceeds of these activities, so I like to hear your take on the matter. And there are differences between getting elementary school kids to sell candy or subscriptions to fund something they know nothing about and high school kids fundraising to finance a band or debate team trip.

Maybe a few of the things that would be helpful to know are how much money was raised last school year through district sanctioned fundraising activities, what organizations sponsored the fundraising activities, how the proceeds were used, and how much class time in what grades was given over to fundraising activities.

Does anyone know the answers to these questions? Anyone at the District Service Center listening in?