Revisions to Culver City School Board Policy on Booster Clubs Still Need Work

The Culver City Unified School District Board engaged in a lengthy discussion regarding revisions to its Administrative Regulation and Board Policy 1230 at its meeting Tuesday night in City Council Chambers.

Board member Laura Chardiet expressed concerns about the exact definition of “school-connected organizations” as expressed in Policy 1230.

Superintendent Patti Jaffe said some of the language was “new terminology” provided by the California School Boards Association, which she would have to investigate.

"We did not make this up," Jaffe said. "We got this from the California School Boards Association. I think it's just [meant] to mean that booster clubs - whatever they might be called - [are] connected to the school. I think that they probably just wanted to use terminology that would apply to everything."

Chardiet also asked whether, along with booster clubs, the definition also includes the Culver City Education Foundation, PTAs and Friends of the Health Center.

"This is to establish a school-connected organization," Jaffe said. "PTA's - they're an established, national organization. Booster clubs generally are not although some might be."

Jaffe also noted that booster clubs must provide "certain information to the school board with their bylaws,"  which is the process used to get its booster club approved by the school board.

“I think the problem that we’re having is if this is the policy just to establish the booster club, or is it an ongoing monitoring of the booster club,” Chardiet said.

Jaffe said some of the booster clubs had not previously been submitting financial information. The current board policy states:

School-connected organizations shall present the Superintendent or designee an annual financial statement showing all expenditures and all income from fundraisers.

Board member Kathy Paspalis also agreed that a better definition of “school-connected organizations” under Board Policy 1230 is needed.

Board member Patricia Siever was interested in changing some of the policy's wording, particularly under item #3, which states:

Bylaws, rules and procedures under which the organization will operate, including procedures for maintaining the organization's finances, membership qualifications, if any, and an agreement that the group will not engage in unlawful discrimination.

Siever suggested changing the wording to include "the organizational membership reflects the diversity of the CCUSD and its student body."

Parents also expressed concerns about the policy amendments.

Jeannine Wisnosky Stehlin said, "I thank you for this first stab. I thought it did give a lot of restrictions as to what a booster club or a parent-funded organization could do regarding hiring their own parent-funded positions.”

Steve Levin noted that the amended policy states:

Booster clubs can’t hire district employees.

“In general, it looks like there are a bunch of changes that add constraints to the booster clubs that may well have reasoning behind [them], but it’s not clear,” he said.

Jaffe suggested to the board that more time be set aside to make the policy as clear as possible.

"I think that what we will do is we will all get together and we will take a look at this," she said. "We'll take a look at rewording it and getting more definitions as requested and make it a little bit clearer."

Board President Karlo Silbiger said the board should follow Levin’s advice of sending the policy to the leaders of the various schools' booster clubs in order to get their recommendations.

The issue will be revisited at the next Board meeting.

To view Board Policy 1230, click on the attached PDF to the right of this article

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