Question
: Students in classes publish school newspapers and magazines, which sell advertising in those publications. Are the receipts from those advertising sales accounted for in the district’s financial records or is this considered an ASB activity?Response: There is no one rule or law that states who this fund-raiser should belong to. It’s more to do with how the receipts will be used and if there is a club that is associated with the publications/advertising.
Remember, if funds are going to be deposited into ASB, there must be an official club that raised the money (or that funds were donated to). A class CAN be considered a club if certain elements are in place, such as having been officially approved as a club by the general student counsel and the principal, having a constitution/ bylaws in place, having a budget and holding official meetings and taking minutes of actions and discussions at those meetings.
Education Code section 48932 allows the governing board to authorize student body organizations to conduct fund-raising activities. Depending on board policy, some district boards actually do review and approve individual ASB fund-raisers. But, in the majority of districts, site principals are able to be the final approver of fund-raisers, after also being approved by the student counsel. Regardless of your district practice of how fund-raisers are approved, if it is decided that the selling of publications (and advertising) is an ASB activity/fund-raiser, then the funds would be deposited into an ASB account.
Another thing that must be in place before deciding whether or not the funds are to be deposited into ASB or the district is how the funds will be spent. Remember that ASB expenditures are to be for the benefit of the students, must be outside of what the district should provide, and the expenditure must be voted on by the students prior to occurrence. So, if students are involved in deciding how the profits will be spent, this is another indication that the receipts should be deposited into ASB.
9/11/08
