MSD discusses advertising and fundraising policies

Terry RogersEducation, Headlines

by Terry Rogers

 

 

Milford School District Board of Education discussed changes to the district’s advertising in schools and fundraising policies. The advertising policy had not been updated since 1982 while the fundraising policy was updated in 2018.

“This policy relates to advertisements in our schools directed at our both our staff and our students,” Dr. Sara Croce, Chief Financial Officer, said. “It condenses the policy, and the changes just have a review process in place for the superintendent or the designee. So that may be the building principal to make sure that we are aware of what’s being distributed to our staff and students from an advertising perspective.”

Board member David Vezmar pointed out that the policy specifically named businesses and asked if it would also apply to religious organizations. Dr. Croce explained that the original policy only referred to commercial advertising, but administration could review to be sure there was not already a policy directed at other types of organizations. Vice-President Rony Baltazar-Lopez asked what the purpose in updating the policy was and Dr. Croce stated that since it had not been reviewed since 1982, staff felt it should be reviewed to be sure the language was current and that it was more condensed.

“The only reason I asked is the language just seems very broad to me. I don’t know. I could possibly perceive some issues down the road with advertising,” Baltazar-Lopez said. “I’m happy to work with that person or anybody else to kind of see if we can make this a little bit more or less broad, if that makes sense. So, I’m still trying to figure out how this I mean, because I could see some issues.” Dr. Croce agreed to work with Baltazar-Lopez to adjust any language in the policy before it came back to the board for approval.

President Jason Miller asked how the new policy would affect athletics and the booster programs as they often solicit funds from businesses who then placed advertising in programs or other locations.

“They go through the approval process and the superintendent or the designee in this case, maybe the athletic director, and then we also have a fundraiser approval process that they would go through as well” Dr. Croce said. “

In addition to the advertising policy, the board discussed updating the Milford School District Funding Policy. The new policy would include a statement that “fundraisers for the benefit of outside organizations must be approved by the building administrator and shall not solicit funds from students.” The added language would allow the district to delete another policy entitled “Soliciting Funds from Students,” condensing two policies into one. Miller asked for an example of a fundraiser that benefitted an outside organization.

“So, in the past, we have sold t-shirts for Bayhealth for breast cancer awareness or maybe we do something for Special Olympics,” Dr. Croce said. “We’ve done a lot of those organizations. So, just making sure that we have an approval process at the building level for those.”

The policies will be presented for approval at the April 25, 2022 board meeting.

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