Framingham School Administration Puts Halt To Teachers Using Donors Choose

The Framingham Public Schools administration has put a halt to teachers using a online crowdsourcing charity, specifically for public school teachers to raise money for needed classroom supplies.

Teachers at several Framingham schools tell Framingham Patch 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, the district has not funded.

But in the past week, the Framingham Public Schools administration issued a memo to stop that practice.

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

The administration memo suggested students’ privacy may have been violated, when teachers started requesting the public fund their needed requests.

“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 memo to staff.

The “Framingham Teachers Association does not endorse using any program that violates students’ privacy. That being said, we will continue to work with administration to find appropriate ways of fundraising. We want to ensure that each of our schools benefits from creative fundraising opportunities,” said FTA co-president Sarah McKeon.

In 2013, Framingham Public Schools administration was giving Harvard University private information about students, without parents permission, for a study. The study was an automatic opt in before parents even learned about it. After parents complained, the district opted not to move forward with the study.

“Harvard University will purge and return the data related to the study,” said Superintendent of Schools Stacy Scott in September 2013.

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.

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.

Framingham Patch has run several reports on teachers’ Donors Choose fundraising campaigns in the last 4 years. The latest one ran on January 25, in which a special needs teacher from McCarthy Elementary was looking to raise less than $2,000 to purchase 8 Chrome books for students, who have individualized education plans (IEPs).

That report generated a lot of buzz on a Framingham Facebook site, as parents questioned why the district does not fund that type of technology for students, especially after the district received $2 million in specific technology funding from Framingham Town Meeting over the last four years.

Last November, Framingham Patch ran a report on a Stapleton Elementary music teacher trying to raise $1,200 for drums for her music students, not through Donors Choose, but through ClassWallet.com.

The memo that went out to Framingham Public School staff only mentioned Donors Choose. There was no mention of ClassWallet or the half dozen other crowdsourcing sites available to teachers.