Get Schooled

By bearcasey

September 26, 2008 9:21 AM | Link to this

Northview High fundraisers wasted thousands of dollars on a “Jumbotron” TV screen for the football field. They will never get a penny from me. Egomaniacs!

By tom

September 26, 2008 9:55 AM | Link to this

Only fundraisers I may support are for extra-curricular activities. Those activities should not be supported by tax-payers money, and parents whose kids benefit from them, and their friends and families, should be the ones to support them.

On the other hand, the money necessary for the basic instructional activities should be fully paid by the systems.

By jim d

September 26, 2008 10:27 AM | Link to this

“Are you cutting back on your support for school fundraisers?”

Has to be one of the dumbest questions I’ve ever heard.

LOOK AROUND. The entire economy is in the toilet and you ask if we will give rather than eat? NOT LIKELY

By Stacey

September 26, 2008 10:28 AM | Link to this

I will not be able to buy as much from the fundraisers this year as I did in years past. I have always thought the stuff was in ridiculously overpriced anyway but I bought it to help the school and/or PTA. I have always wish that his school did like (some) other schools and just allowed the parents to pay a flat “activity fee”. I realize that a lot of parents can’t/won’t pay that either but at least it will save on the hassle of selling overpriced candy and wrapping paper.

By HB

September 26, 2008 11:04 AM | Link to this

Hate the wrapping paper and “gourmet” candy! My neighbors always wanted their dollars to help as much as possible and just gave money rather than buying junk where the school only got a cut of the revenue. Give $10, rather than buy $15 worth of wrapping paper — you’ll spend less and the school will get more.

By high school teacher

September 26, 2008 11:32 AM | Link to this

At a conference this weekend, so I have some extra time…

we didn’t even buy anything when our children came home with the Reader’s Digest/wrapping paper/candy sale last month.

Have “they” officially declared a recession yet, or are “they” still in denial?

By Mene

September 26, 2008 12:50 PM | Link to this

With the trash they always try to sell, I sure hope so. I know that they are important for the schools, but sell something useful!

By Old School

September 26, 2008 1:01 PM | Link to this

One of the best fundraisers we ever did was “Rent A Kid.” You could hire a student to rake your yard, wash your car or windows or do some other odd job. Betcha couldn’t do that now with all the crazies out there!

My drafting club was given a trailer load of blueberry bushes by a local nursery. We sold them for a few dollars each and funded our activities for the entire year.

Of course, it’s probably easier for us to have successful fundraisers in our small town but I still don’t like or buy gift wrap or candies. Pilau and barbecue dinners, fish frys, and cookoffs also work.

How about a dunking booth with assorted administrators, school board members, favorite teachers? That would make some bucks!

By lyncoln

September 26, 2008 1:50 PM | Link to this

For my HS Band we sold Vidalia onions by the large bag (35 lbs and 50 lbs I think). That was a reasonably popular fund raiser for the band, but it definitely wasn’t the only way of getting money for the band.

Living in an apartment complex I pretty much never get approached for any of the school fundraisers. I’ll count myself as lucky. Thank goodness there’s some Girl Scouts that do a cookie booth sale in the lobby every spring!

By jim d

September 26, 2008 1:52 PM | Link to this

Old school,

Those indeed might raise some money.

With the kid of at college I’d rent one to operate the DVD and re-program the tv remotes and telephones.

As for the dunking of SB members? Could the tank be full of caustic?

By HB

September 26, 2008 1:59 PM | Link to this

Hey, Old School, has your rural community ever held a cow patty roundup? That always brought in good money in my little town.

By Tony

September 26, 2008 4:41 PM | Link to this

Times are difficult. To help parents with their own financial picture, I have already decided to reduce the number and extent of fundraisers held by our school this year. In addition, we have already limited our field trips in an effort to save fuel and save the parents’ money.

We will miss the extra opportunities the fundraisers provided for the students and we will miss the field trips. At this point, we do not know where the economic nightmare will end and I believe we should conserve every resource. I hope these steps help.

By jim d

September 26, 2008 4:59 PM | Link to this

Tony,

here’s another tip you might find helpful.

When cooling set your thermostat up a few degrees. Save: 1 - 3 percent per degree, for each degree the thermostat is set above 72 degrees)

By Tony

September 26, 2008 5:32 PM | Link to this

We have instituted mandatory thermostat checks. For now, AC can not be set lower than 74 and must be turned off when the students leave the building. We are doing this in all of our schools (around 30). At home I am setting the temperature at 78 and use the ceiling fans.

The cumulative savings in schools by shutting off all computers, lights and AC units has the potential of being huge, even for small systems.

By Old School

September 26, 2008 5:50 PM | Link to this

HB at 1:59- Our local branch of the American Cancer Society sponsored Cow Patty Bingo along with other activities. It was huge fun, especially the Hootenanny (barn dance). There are still Halloween Carnivals (I don’t care for the pc Fall Festival cop-out) with dunking booths, cakewalks, and relay races. Last weekend I was entered in a Chili Cookoff and Silent Auction…didn’t even place but it sure was fun and raised almost $1500.00. Not bad, huh!

Student/Faculty basketball and softball games, school day talent shows, reverse beauty contests, outhouse races, there are so many things you can do that are fun and raise money without the door to door junk. Entry fees guarantee some money then folks vote with pocket change. You’d be surprised at the take!

By HB

September 26, 2008 7:06 PM | Link to this

Agreed! Community fundraisers are fun and give back while taking in. Those give people a way to pitch in too besides giving money. For example, our band director/farmer provided the cows for our roundup/bingo :). Another farmer helped out with donkey basketball — jr high v h.s. faculty playing b-ball on donkeys. A $4 admission fee, donation buckets, and concession stand brought in a lot of $$ for very little upfront cost. The concessions were covered too in case they didn’t sell. The athletic boosters promised to buy leftovers at cost to sell at other activities.

By Lee

September 26, 2008 7:10 PM | Link to this

Fundraisers using candy, wrapping paper, or any other product where the school only gets 50 cents on the dollar are one of my all time pet peeves. When you see one of those, it means that someone is too lazy to put forth much effort to raise money.

I’d much prefer to see kids having a car wash or some other activity where they are actively participating than for them to bring home a box of candy which usually gets taken to work by mom or dad.

The big thing when I was in school was magazine sales. Remember those? God how I hated to try to sell those things.

By lovemy4kids

September 27, 2008 1:11 AM | Link to this

Wow! I think the AJC Bloggoddess has hit on an awesome idea for Big Ben’s Bodacious Bailout Scheme. Since the government school system has been on the front lines of dishing out sound Keynesian economic education and field trips to the local Federal Reserve bank, it is only fitting that the millions of American government school students should “give back” to their benefactors. I propose that one of the Swiss banks donate bags of chocolate gold coins, to be distributed to each student to sell to the highest bidder in their neighborhood. If the national proceeds fall short of the $700 billion, each family must make up the difference. The US Treasury and Wall Street would be rescued, and the Federal Reserve Bank field trips will be continued for the next generation!

For an even better idea … http://www.ronpaul.com/

By happy2teach

September 27, 2008 5:21 PM | Link to this

WWW.DONORSCHOOSE.ORG!!!!!!!!!!

By lovemy4kids

September 28, 2008 3:37 AM | Link to this

happy2teach Thanks for letting me know about this amazing professional beggars website. Can home educators get in on the dole? The first “need” I clicked on was a pitch for a 30 square carpet for $549. Her little K-5 students are just lost without a square to sit on. Might I suggest a 2 second Google to Home Depot? They have individual carpet squares for $.49 each. Using the New Math, I estimate that to be $15.00. The squares can even be stacked in the corner when not in use. If the class size increases, new squares can be added. Geeze, with this kind of funds mismanagement, it is no wonder our country needs a 6 trillion dollar bailout. When the economy goes down on Monday, I hope you put in your request for tents and camping equipment!

By College Prof

September 28, 2008 9:18 AM | Link to this

As one poster suggested earlier, I’ve decided that my donation would do a whole lot more good if given directly to the school rather than through some magazine scheme. While I understand the psychology of making someone think they’re getting something for their money it just waters down the value of the gift all around.

By PTCMomma

September 28, 2008 6:34 PM | Link to this

I went to the Donorschoose.org . I see part of the problem with schools now. These teachers want to spend more than it costs to get the equipment. You can get a great classroom microscope and slides for about $300 at hometrainingtools.com (a microscope and slides was one teacher’s wish at this site).

By happy2teach

September 29, 2008 9:28 PM | Link to this

Lovemy and PTC,

What you fail to understand about Donorschoose is that they basically coordinate the fundraising project for you. Yes, that adds overhead, but I’ll gladly go for that since fundraisers are forbidden at my school. Sure, we could get things cheaper, but only if we paid out of pocket, I thought that was fairly obvious. It’s amazing that you could make a negative out of such a great site. A little more is spent through the site because of the overhead factor, but to charge that teachers like it that way is just plain stupid.

By happy2teach

September 29, 2008 9:31 PM | Link to this

Lovemy and PTC,

What you fail to understand about Donorschoose is that they basically coordinate the fundraising project for you. Yes, that adds overhead, but I’ll gladly go for that since fundraisers are forbidden at my school. Sure, we could get things cheaper, but only if we paid out of pocket, I thought that was fairly obvious. It’s amazing that you could make a negative out of such a great site. A little more is spent through the site because of the overhead factor, but to charge that teachers like it that way is just plain stupid.

By lovemy4kids

September 30, 2008 7:18 PM | Link to this

“A little more is spent through the site because of the overhead factor, but to charge that teachers like it that way is just plain stupid.”

According to my example, $535 isn’t exactly chump change for “overhead”. The problem with this site is that the teacher is encouraged to “beg big” for items that could easily be substituted with a more cost effective/creative solution.

Since this is a 501C3, do you know where I can find their financial statement showing what kind of salaries these folks make? Also, you state that fundraisers are forbidden at your school. Why is that? BTW Donorschoose.org IS a fundraiser.

The real question is why $8,000 - $10,000 per student/ year is not enough? The pics of the children’s “poverty” classrooms were far better equipped than what I had in my non-poverty elementary school. I thought the original idea behind public school was to help the truly poor. The better-off can pay for private school, as well as some of the middle class. Mom and dad can also pay for Juniors’ extras. IF THE POOR ARE NOT BEING SERVED IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS, THEN WHY DO THEY EXIST?????? Who is getting the money? The beggars’ website is evidence that someone is STEALING TAXPAYERS’ MONEY! What are YOU doing about it??????????

By happy2teach

September 30, 2008 10:06 PM | Link to this

Why would you attack a non-profit? How does that prove your point about money being mis-spent in public schools, which I agree with by the way.

With such a pointless, angry rant, it might lead one to think that you are angry at a public school system that left you under-educated and under-employed, which I truly hope is not the case.

Look at the site again please, the beauty of it is that the donor can very specifically choose a project that they think is WORTHY. It is the ultimate “market-driven” solution to money not being used correctly by administrators. Isn’t that plain and clear? Bad projects don’t get funded and tax-payers aren’t being forced to pay anything extra. Until we get the rest of the mess fixed, it’s a beautiful system. Open that angry, closed mind please…

By lovemy4kids

October 1, 2008 12:28 AM | Link to this

You can’t have your cake and eat it too. You are claiming that a “charity” is “market driven”. This website is selling overpriced goods to support its own “charity” operations. If they cannot sell competitively priced goods, then their salaries are bloated, and they started this as a government subsidized enterprise for self-profit. Because individuals can salve their conscience with partial contributions, what they would reject individually, they will purchase collectively and thus defeat any market driven corrections for overpricing.

Another point was that this website IS a fundraiser. If it were not, it would not be a 501C3. If you get items from this site (they claim to contact the school principal for verification), then you and your principle are violating the “no fundraisers” rule at your school. By the way, you never said why they had this rule.

Your attitude regarding the obvious failure of the public schools to adequately serve the truly poor reminds me a bit of the video clip of Barney Frank claiming that he can’t see anything wrong going on at Fannie and Freddie. If the kids are getting cheated, you should be the biggest of whistle-blowers. Resorting to outside pseudo-charities for yet another grab of taxpayer money “for the children” is being an accomplice to theft! If you can’t have high moral standards in this matter, you are not worthy of your job! Money represents someone’s personal time energy and effort. To squander it is SIN.

By lovemy4kids

October 1, 2008 2:02 AM | Link to this

While we are on the topic of squandering taxpayer’s money, I hope you realize that the national debt as of September ‘08 is $59.1 TRILLION. That comes to $516,340 per household. We are printing fiat money, folks. The dollar has lost over 95% of its value. When it goes to ZERO, the late great America will be in the dust bin of history. The $700 billion bailout means that the Fed wants to print up that much FIAT money (there is no gold in the vault). This is a direct attack on the value of the dollar. It is a hefty tax and a form of slavery from which no one but the super rich can escape! Teachers, educate yourselves. Here’s a start http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UnitedStatespublic_debt

By Tracy

October 10, 2008 11:59 AM | Link to this

There is a fundraising solution and American Community Marketing Development will be bringing it to the attention of GA and then across the Nation in 2009!!