Question: Can the Athletic Director use money from the ASB athletic general account to purchase uniforms for the JV football team? Uniforms have never been purchased from this account in the past and the AD is the JV football coach.

This account accrues its money from admission charged at athletic events.  The account pays for officials, tournament fees, event staff/security, and those things that benefit the athletic program. Boosters usually purchases uniforms for the varsity teams. JV gets the hand-me-downs from the varsity teams.

Response: Student body funds must be used to promote and finance a program of worthwhile activity beyond those provided by the district. State law also requires that all student body expenses be pre-approved. In high schools and middle schools the student organizations are called organized student body associations because the students organize their activities around student clubs and a student council. The students are involved in deciding how the ASB funds are spent.

Because the distinction between allowable and unallowable expenses can be very confusing, school district governing boards should adopt rules and regulations by which the student body is governed.  If your district's governing body has not adopted such a policy for student body accounts, it should do so to establish parameters for the operation of the ASB accounts and to help determine whether certain costs are allowable or not.

Expenditures must directly promote the general welfare, morale, or educational experience of the students to be an allowable use of student funds.  In addition, student body funds cannot be used for expenditures that are the responsibility of the district or any other entity. Since it appears that in the past no entity purchased the JV uniforms, as they were hand-me-downs, student body funds could be used for the costs if the students agreed with the expenditure by pre-approving it. If the situation were different and the cost of the uniforms were normally the responsibility of another source (i.e. boosters) in prior years, student body funds could not be used. If uniforms had usually been paid for from student body funds in the past, then the uniforms costs could continue to be paid from ASB funds if the students pre-approved the expenditure.

3/09/05