LITTLE ROCK — Pulaski County schools have nearly $2 million in special funds sitting in their checking accounts and only three weeks of school left in which to spend it.
If history is any indication, the schools won't spend the money leftover in "activity-fund" accounts. Despite a Pulaski County Special School District policy against it, this year they collectively carried over $1.7 million in income from candy sales, school pictures, after-school tuition and other fundraisers, according to accounting reports from the schools.
Many schools are sitting on large balances - including several with more than $100,000. A few schools have money in savings accounts and short-term investments.
But soon that will change.
School Board members are tinkering with rules governing the accounts after a Bayou Meto Elementary School parent complained for months that it was too hard to learn what her child's school was spending parent-generated income on.
Aside from leafing through receipts at the schools or submitting requests under openrecords laws, there's no simple way to learn how the schools are spending the money - or to know how much they keep from year to year.
Beth Casasola said she became interested in the accounts after seeing the need for certain items at the school. Over the nine years her children attended the school, she participated in many fundraising campaigns and never thought about where the money went.
As a member of the school's parent-teacher association board, she found herself in an awkward position.
"I was sitting there asking people to donate money," she said, "and I didn't have any idea what we were raising money for."
Casasola asked the School Board to better supervise the accounts and revise its policies to hold schools more accountable for their spending.
Even top administrators don't know specifically what schools are doing with the money. Chief Financial Officer Larry O'Briant said the accounts haven't been routinely audited nor have policies that restrict ending-fund balances been enforced.
He plans to begin auditing accounts at the end of each yearto ensure that rules are followed and schools don't hoard cash.
"If a school has a fundraiser in that year and the kids go out and raise money, then the money should be spent that year for the kids who went out and raised the money," O'Briant said. "When you start banking the money and not spending it, it's not fair to those kids who've raised the money and not benefited from it."
According to school district policy, money from fundraisers must be spent "to the benefit of the most students." That means field trips, celebrations, rewards for volunteers and other studentdriven efforts. Student clubs and sports teams that raise money often keep it in the accounts and spend it on trips or make purchases.
Schools can't use activity-fund money to pay staff membership fees for professional organizations.
Under the policy, elementary schools can carry over only $4 per student.
That would mean the district's second-largest elementary school, Clinton, would be allowed to carry over $3,060. But the school began the fiscal year with $133,775 in its checking account, the highest amount among any elementary school.
That's $174.87 per student.
Middle and high schools are allowed to carry over $6 per student.
Yet, Sylvan Hills High School in Sherwood began the fiscal year with $166,048, the highest amount among any secondary school.
That's $180.68 per student.
School Board member Shana Chaplin asked that the carry-over restrictions be increased to $6 per student for elementary schools and $8 per student for secondary schools. Principals would be able to request a waiver of the policy if the school is saving for a large purchase.
Chaplin, of Chenal Valley, also wants each school to provide quarterly reports to administrators and parents on fundraising and spending.
"To me that's parent money," she said. "The law is clear, and the policy is clear that it has to be spent to the greatest benefit of all kids."
She also wants the district staff to figure out how to reduce what she called "excessive" balances by the end of the school year.
But Danny Gililland, from north Pulaski County, said he doesn't want to see random spending as the deadline nears.
"I don't want to see that money just blown and wasted," he said.
Gililland said few parents know about activity accounts, much less where the money is spent. The only information routinely available is a balance report provided to School Board members.
"There's really not been any controls put on it," he said. "Some of these schools have what looks like outrageous amounts of money, but if they've submitted a project that they're saving up that money for, we're not aware of it. There may be a legitimate reason for that, but we don't know about it."
After repeated complaints from Casasola, the Bayou Meto parent, O'Briant ordered his staff to audit Bayou Meto activity-fund purchases.
A district accountant, Tasha Thompson, reviewed receipts from July 1, 2006, to Jan. 31, 2008. She submitted a one-page report to district administrators March 6.
She found a few items that didn't comply with the district'spolicy that activity-fund money must be spent "to benefit the most students," including:
$720.48 spent on food for staff members and flowers for the front office, a violation of the policy.
$1,576 spent on a radio program for an anti-drug program, a potential violation if students did not participate in the program.
$285.68 spent on cleaning supplies for the school, a violation. Schools are supposed to purchase cleaning supplies from a central warehouse of approved supplies.
$1,276 paid to The Master Teacher Inc., a violation if it was spent on professional development but not if it was on teaching supplies. The company provides professional-development programs but also has a catalog of motivational posters, books, DVDs and other trinkets given to educators as rewards. The district provides staff development money for employees, Thompson wrote.
Finally, Thompson noted that there were several examples of teachers paying into a pool to buy snacks for the staff. She recommended that a separate account be established to ensure that staff food is paid for with staff money.
Bayou Meto receipts that Casasola has from the 2005-06 school year show purchases similar to those the auditor questioned.
They included purchases for teachers, such as conference fees, meals for training sessions, cheesecake, a water filter for the teacher's lounge and appreciation gifts such as pins, mugs and a tote bag.
Other purchases include supplies such as flash drives for the bookkeeper and registrar, office chairs, carpet, supplies for the principal's office, batteries for lunch-duty bullhorns, cleaning products, painting supplies, hardware supplies, postage, and a microwave and air freshener for the front office.
All the purchases that school employees have made with activity-fund money benefit students in some way, Bayou Meto Principal Karen Sullards said. None of the items was unseemly for a school to buy, and many other schools in the district operate the same way, she said.
"There's nothing the matter with what we bought, it's just out of the wrong fund," Sullards said.
The school stopped using the activity-fund money to buy supplies and food for teachers earlier this year, Sullards said. In the future, the school will tell parents specifically what it is raising money for, she said.
Much of the school's materials budget goes to paper and copying, bookkeeper Debra Rowlett said. There's little left for purchases such as printer cartridges, office supplies and appreciation meals for the staff.
"We'll have to find different ways to fund that," she said, "but that's something that we'll have to learn to deal with."
Arkansas, Pages 24, 33 on 05/18/2008