Framingham Superintendent: 'We Must Ensure Our Fundraising Efforts Are Coordinated'

Earlier this week, Framingham School administration sent a memo to principals, to distribute to staff, asking teachers to stop using a well-known national charity, that helps public school teachers fund need supplies and tools for their classrooms.

The Monday, Jan. 26, memo stated “from this point forward, any type of Donors Choose requests should be stopped until further notice.”

Framingham Patch was the first and only media outlet to publish the news on Wednesday, Jan. 28, after several Framingham Public Schools teachers contacted Patch on Tuesday.

Patch asked both the Framingham Teachers Association and Superintendent of Schools Stacy Scott for more clarification about the decision to halt using Donors Choose on Wednesday morning. The Union replied immediately, but a statement from Scott did not arrive until 11 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 29, via the district’s new public information officer.

That statement from Scott said “We do not want to discourage the fundraising efforts of teachers. We do want to ensure that when teachers or coaches or others do undertake such endeavors, that these efforts comply with all local and state policies. Further, we must ensure our fundraising efforts are coordinated in a way that prevents duplication of process.”

“Let me share with you an example, you might have a basketball coach asking parents and community supporters for money for the purchase of new basketballs, and in the absence of coordination with school principals, our grants office, or central administration, be unaware that new basketballs are included in a grant request or in the next budget,” said the written statement from Scott.

“We have had policies in place for a number of years now, authored and approved by the School Committee, that address these efforts. Our memo, sent to all FPS teachers is a reminder of our policies,” added Scott in the written statement issued on Thursday.

Teachers at several Framingham schools told Framingham Patch this month, they can not get needed classroom supplies like tape and erasers, since the district’s administration put a freeze into place in November 2014.

Since November, there has been an increase of teachers using crowdsourcing sites including Donors Choose, a site Oprah called a ‘revolutionary charity’ for teachers, to raise funds for needed classroom supplies and other items to help students learn. First Lady Michelle Obama also publicly has supported the 501C charity Donors Choose.

Framingham teachers have been using the national Donors Choose, for several years to raise money for musical instruments, tablets and Chrome books, and other supplies for the classroom and students, that the public school district has not funded.

The Framingham Public Schools administration memo on Monday suggested students’ privacy may have been violated, when teachers use Donors Choose.

“It has been brought to our attention that there has been misinformation and violation of student privacy in some requests. Some information that has been used to justify the requests can be misinterpreted. Pictures of students, student names, describing our population as disabled, in poverty, as second language learners, etc. is in violation of School Committee Policy,” stated the Monday memo distributed to principals.

Donors Choose was created in 2000 by a social studies public school teacher in the Bronx NY. The site is specifically for public school teachers. The 501C charity site vets every classroom project request, purchases the materials and ships them directly to the school, and supplies a cost report showing how every dollar was spent.

Nationally, Donors Choose said teachers, who have used its site, have raised more than $116 million to help 6 million students.

In August, Framingham-based Staples, with the help of pop singer Katy Perry, funded $1 million worth of Donors Choose projects, including a couple of Framingham Public School teacher’s projects.

In September 2014, Google corporation funded another $1 million worth of teachers’ requests on Donors Choose.

The Framingham administration memo also reminded teachers that any ”donations received are in fact the property of Framingham Public Schools and should be inventoried.” In the district’s memo to Framingham teachers, there was a specific reference about technology requests.

Reaction to the school district’s policy has mostly supported the teachers using Donors Choose.

Here are some of the responsed from the Framingham Patch Facebook page:

• “I understand the importance of student privacy, but to just put a blanket ban on this when teachers are struggling to give their students the supplies they need seems unnecessary,” wrote Rich Andriole.
• “I think teachers should be allowed to have this resource. You don’t have to donate and if the school district can’t provide the necessary supplies, why not? Does them putting a halt to it mean they’ll give teachers what they need? Of course not. Too bad,“ wrote Katie Miller.
• “The bigger question is why if the school department can’t provide necessary supplies like PENCILS and ERASERS are they paying $60,000 a year for a part time Information (Communication?) director,” wrote Mary Martell.

Reactions on a Facebook page, run by two Framingham parents, called Open and Honest Discourse About the Framingham Schools, also supported the teachers.

“I hope that they halt it to review, and not to eliminate,” said Deb Hurowitz, one of the two parents, who created the Facebook page in 2014, for parents to discuss school issues.

There was more than a dozen comments on the first Patch report, too. Click hear to read that report and the comments.