MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Monongalia County Board of Education will temporarily wait before making a potential vote on the county schools crowdsourcing policies.
Board Member Christina Fattore Morgan recommended the decision as part of the BOE’s regular meeting Tuesday in order to have in-person conversations with School Superintendent Eddie Campbell, Board Members Shawn Smith and Daniel Berry, and any parent-teacher organizations that may have an interest in offering input into any changes that should be considered at future meetings. This was agreed upon by the BOE after a third set of representatives of a county school parent-teacher organization (PTO) spoke in favor of a policy adjustment to crowdsourcing.
“I think it would be more productive if we were all here,” said Fattore Morgan. “With Dr. Campbell out of the country and with Mr. Smith and Dan (Berry) on vacation, I think it’s a better discussion if we’re all here face-to-face.”
The policy regarding crowdsourcing itself is explicitly stated in policy 6605 for the Monongalia County School System, where no third-party crowdsourcing is allowed, with the only fundraising currently allowed involving any self-organized event, with very limited exceptions made to certain third-party fundraising vendors. The call to consider an adjustment to the crowdsourcing policy for the Monongalia County School System stems from PTOs from at least three county elementary schools who stated that their respective fundraising “Fun Runs” would be impacted if the policy was fully enforced. On Tuesday, three PTO representatives from Eastwood Elementary explained that while they understand certain aspects of third-party crowdsourcing for individual classrooms or things of that nature, fundraising efforts that allow for reasonable third-party opportunities should be considered.
“I fully understand what they’re saying, for teachers to put out like an Amazon list, which is completely different than us asking to be able to fundraise,” said Eastwood Elementary School PTO representative Brittany Hicks. “With the Fun Run, people from California, Hawaii, and all over the country are able to donate and help out their kids, nieces, and nephews (things like that).”
During the public portion of the BOE’s meeting Tuesday, Hicks advocated for the BOE to strongly consider an adjustment to the policy based on past fundraising events for Eastwood Elementary, where over $20,000 was raised as a result of “Fun Runs” hosted in years past. Based on the funds gathered from the family members of students who live across the country, Eastwood Elementary students were able to take part in a PTO-funded field trip, with several programming requests made by teachers throughout the school year. While the policy itself doesn’t exclude fundraising efforts hosted by an individual school (i.e., bake sales, raffles), the parents of Eastwood Elementary School students feel it makes a huge difference in what can be offered in extracurricular programming.
“We’re able to do things like charter buses for field trips, we’re able to give back to the classrooms,” said Hicks. “Teachers are able to send in request forms for different activities that they want to do, art things, stuff like that.”
After the meeting, members of the Eastwood Elementary School PTO who were in attendance spoke with members of the BOE to discuss what they hope will be able to be adjusted while avoiding any third-party vendor concerns. Along with parents from Eastwood Elementary who have spoken out, PTO representatives from Skyview Elementary School and Mountain View Elementary School have also openly advocated to the BOE to consider an adjustment to the policy. With Campbell and the two absent board members expected to return in full by August, there’s an expectation that full discussions will take place in a few weeks.
“It would be better to have a discussion in front of those stakeholders that can attend the meeting, and we give the community more notice on when we’re going to discuss it,” said Fattore Morgan.