Seattle Public Schools has new rules about school fundraisers, and they’ve stirred up some concern today. The citywide PTSA Council mentioned them briefly in a newsletter that went out this week:
Starting in the Fall 2013, Seattle Public Schools will take a 10% cut, up to $1000, for the use of school grounds if the fundraising activity takes place during school hours (read: Walk-A-Thons, etc). (We’re trying to think of it as a “use fee” for the space).
That was in turn forwarded to WSB by several outraged parents. So we asked SPS spokesperson Teresa Wippel about the rule change. She explains:
To comply with state law, Seattle Public Schools developed new procedures for school-based fundraising. If fundraisers occur during the school day and involve students (for example, a walkathon or readathon), we are required to ensure that students receive a portion of the proceeds. We worked with PTSA leadership during the past school year to create these procedures, which are aimed at making sure that our students retain a portion of the proceeds for events that they participate in. As a result, if a PTSA fundraiser is an activity that is co-sponsored with ASB, 10 percent – up to $1,500 – goes to the school’s ASB fund. Of course, the ASB fund may be used for many of the things the PTSA supports, such as field trips and sporting and social events.
If the activity is carried out in accordance with all three items listed below, it is a PTSA event; thus the PTSA retains all proceeds:
A) outside of regular school time (after school, evening or weekend)
B) the PTSA does the event planning, organizing, money-handling
C) the event is advertised as a PTSA fundraiser (i.e. Adams PTSA, Ballard Athletics Booster Club).
We also asked when this was approved by the School Board. Answer: It wasn’t – it’s an administrative action. Meantime, a commenter on Seattle Schools Community Forum pointed out that something similar came around three years ago – and was overturned shortly after coming to light.
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