Vance County Schools will prepare a policy banning outside fundraising companies after an incident involving the Northern Vance band came to light this week.
Board of Education member Robert Duke raised the issue at the end of a Policy Committee meeting Wednesday morning.
He said John Bunch of Standard Motor Parts on South Garnett Street received a call from an out-of-state, paid fundraiser seeking a donation on behalf of the band, and Bunch refused to commit to anything over the phone. But someone brought a bill for $65 by his business while he was out, and his secretary paid it.
Bunch failed to get answers from Northern Vance Principal Hugh Brady about the purpose of the fundraiser and the amount of money actually going to the school band, Duke said.
The bigger issue, Superintendent Norm Shearin said, is that an outside company should never have been used to raise money for a school organization.
“They can have fundraisers,” Shearin said. “They can’t do this.”
Contracting with outside companies to raise money for the schools “is the worst practice one can have,” he said. “It’s high-pressure salesmanship by phone, and it should not occur.”
He said the pitch for the Northern Vance band, to buy sponsorships on telephone book covers, was similar to “the biggest abuse,” football schedule posters.
“The principals have been told we do not do that,” Shearin said. “We do not attack our local businesses.”
He said Vance schools used such outside fundraisers before he arrived at the start of 2003. They’re appealing because the schools get money and put in no effort, but Shearin said they are bad deals for the community.
Fundraising must be conducted face to face by the students, he said. Middlemen are not allowed, both because of their high-pressure tactics and because they take a big percentage of the money raised.
“I don’t want 80 percent of my money going to some company out of state,” Duke said.
Emeron Cash said the practice of outside fundraisers might be more common than the school board suspects. It just happened that Bunch took his questions to a board member.
A ban on third-party solicitations exists in the school system as an administrative rule, Shearin said, but the school system will create an official policy to eliminate any confusion.
The policy will not bar the use of companies that supply items for students to sell, such as cookie dough, peanuts and pizza kits. The key is that students, not professionals, must be the ones handling the sales.