ee ee ee The money chase Are students and teachers spending too much time fundraising? By DAVE TAYLOR YOU SEE THEM standing outside the liquor store, sell- ing raffle tickets. They clean up garbage in the snow and wash cars in the rain. But for .everything stu- dents, teachers and coaches do to raise money, they al- ways seem to need more, Fund-raising for extra- curricular activities can con- tinue all year and can take a huge emotional and physical toll on those involved, In fact, it’s probably the main reason why it’s so dif- ficult to find teachers who are willing to coach. The problem is Terrace’s location — it’s in the mid- dle of nowhere. In Van- couver, a school sports team can drive across town to lake part in a 16-team tournament, then retum players home at night. Here, for a team to find similar competition requires a seven-hour bus ride and a few nights on the road, or a flight ta Vancouver. Caledonia teacher and boys basketball coach Cam Mackay has been coaching in Terrace for more than a decade. “Up here I will spend as much time or more fund- raising as coaching,” he says. “Which kind of defeats the point.” Student fundraising a big un By CRIS LEYKAUF SELLING . CHOCOLATES doesn’t cut it anymore. Teachers and students are getting more creative as they try to raise money for sports teams and clubs. Who gets those donations and how much time is spent going after them is a topic the school district is exam- ining closely right now. There are some. good ideas. out there. Aniong the suc-_ cessful money-raisers are a tri-school band concert, a physics calendar yardwork, a The boys senior basketball team probably requires more money than any other local sports team. Mackay and his students have to raise between $16,000 and $24,000 annually. And that doesn’t include a trip to the Provincials, which could add $9,000 to the tab. Tronically, it costs less to sponsor lower-mainland teams to come to Terrace than il costs to take the Kernodes ta Vancouver. A trip down south will cost about $7,000, while helping teams come here costs $2,500 to $4,000. Raising those dollars has become a second job for teacher-sponsors, coaches and a few parents. 'Tve sold fruit, chicken, spices — everything you could sell we’ve sold,” says Mackay. ‘‘We've fixed fences and painted bams. I’ve taken the kids tree- planting, shoveled snow off roofs and cut firewood,’’ Mackay says parents are usually very supportive, but sometimes he gets resistance from those who suggest sports should be user-pay. “Do they think every kid who wants to play basket- ball is flush with cash?’’ he says, ““What are we sup- posed to do, say ‘serry, you Sometimes those sports and academic teams and clubs can’t raise enough money for an out-of-town trip. And that means only students who can afford to make up the difference can go. That leads ta worries about gaps between the have and have-not students, Should only well-off stu- dents get'to‘go‘on that’ban “trip? resins Wibice be toes asa ‘So tow the School “board” _is looking at putting togeth- and » era district-wide strategy on fundraising, says assistant is spread throughout the dis- THE CALEDONIA boys basketball team is starting another busy season of practicing and fundraising for out of town trips. can't play because your dad docsn’t make enough money?” So it’s back to raising money, which coaches say in itself isn'ta bad thing. “Tvs an important part of the curriculum and it helps build responsibility,”’ says Caledonia girls volleyball coach Jackie Thomsen. superintendent Sharon Beedle. A steering committee has been set up which will report to the District Ad- visory Committee (DAC). The DAC in tum makes recommendations to the school board. The com- mitice, will look at fundrais- .ing and recruiting coaches and sponsors. oosRight now-the-'school dis- trict’ doles ‘out’$105,000 for “curricular and” extra- curricular —_ activities primarily travel. The money partments. $2,000. afternoon matinee. the Roof. coffers. Director and music teacher Geoff Parr says past musicals have raised about Usually the students put on three sepa- rate shows — performances on Friday and Saturday nights, and a Saturday Last year Parr says 1,500 out of a pos- sible 2,100 seats were sold for Fiddler on If that many tickets sell again, that means over $2,000 from the show would go directly into school district general “Ty does appear that teachers are fundraising to support the distriét,”’ says CALEDONIA STUDENT actors from the musical Bye Bye Birdie rehearse a scene called “The Telephone Hour.” The musical will be shown Dec. 5-6. For the first time a head tax will be added to the cost of the musical ticket. The money will go to support the REM Lee Theatre. School musical raises money for REM theatre SHOULD TEACHERS be raising money for general school district operations? That’s the question which was raised this fall, following an announcement that the $1.50 head tax for REM performances would apply to Caledonia musicals. The Caledonia music and drama depart- ments are putting on the musical Bye Bye Birdie, Dec. 5-6. The school usually pro- duces one big musical a year. As well as providing valuable experi- ence for young actors, musicians and technicians, the show also acts 15 8 | money-raiser for the music and drama de- Parr. tons. He knows the school district faces dif- ficult money problems. But he wonders why the arts are being singled out. For example, when tickeis are sold fora student basketball game, there’s no head tax on those, he points out. School district secretary-treasurer Barry Piersdorff says the school isn’t fundrais- ing for the district. “T?’s not part of the school’s cost. It’s an attendance tax.’ Piersdorff says the $1.50 is charged lo the customer to support theatre oper- Ticket prices for the show had already been set at $12 for the evening shows and $5 for the matinee, Now those prices will be $13 and §7. There's a lot of cost involved in putting on a show of this size. Pare says royalties run about $3,000, the set and costumes another $3,000, then there’s advertising and technical expenses, This is the first year Parr will have to pay for a technician from the REM Lee Theatre to help with lights and sound, if he can’1 find enough student help. There are approximately 100 students involved with this year’s show and a number of teachers are also helpirg out. “But it takes so much time and energy. Sometimes it means the girls aren’t quite as focussed at practice and it can take away from other things like homework.” Thomsen’s volleyball team works from an $11,000 budget. ‘Schools down south can't fathom that,”’ she says. trict, including Kitimat, Hazelton and Stewart, on a per school and per student ratio. That amount is down slightly from last year. As government monies decrease, fundraising for extra-curricular —_ activities will increase, says Beedle. And that’s a trend which isn’t likely to do an aboul- face. + - HW HRD Eh ote 4 -Butthere’s a‘limit to -how much ‘itioney is out there for school activities. Beedle couldn’t answer how much is currently raised. Teachers’ union president Frank Rowe guessed the fig- ure is many tens of thou- sands of dollars in Terrace alone, and possibly much more. He and Beedle are half of the steering committee members. Trustee Mar, Brown and parent Barb Ames make up the rest of the committee. They’ve sent letters out to each school and parent ad- visory committes in the dis- trict, asking for information on fundraising activity. They point out that good- will shown in the com- munity towards student ac- tivities might decrease, if people and businesses are hit up too many times, for donations. : The letter asks how much money from the province, school district and school goes to support cach extra- curricular or school activity. Then each group is asked about its fundraising ac- tivities planned for this year, target donors and expected donations. As government monies decrease, fundraising for extra- curricular _ activities will increase — admin- istrator Sharon Beedle. “We want to get a picture of money getting raised this year. Set that out as a data base,’” said Rowe. There are & lot of issues this investigation could raise: M@ Should a great money raising idea be the property of just one group? Or should others have a chance to literally share the wealth? @ Should limits be imposed on how much fundraising students do outside of school hours? Rowe says no teachers of students have Mackay agrees that raising money helps build-- team spiri/and-chentistry. But he’ says it’s so much work that teachers often aren’t willing to coach of even sponsor & team because of it. “This school is full of teachers who are bumt-out ex-cbachts,'*he (says. “I fecl for “then. It can be a thankless job and it’s a huge amount of work.” The problem surfaced again this year when the Caledonia girls’ basketball coach pulled out. Another coach wasn’t available so - the girls tumed to other ac- tivities. Thomsen, who was already coaching volleyball took up the basketball posi- tion to save the team, but it may already be too late. **I would hate to see the only senior school in Ter- race not have a girls basket- ball team,’ Mackay says. “Tt’s really a disgrace.” Mackay says a parent’s booster-club to raise money would help, as would breaks from the government like dropping the current w- quirement for teams to pay for substitute teachers while the teacher-coach is at a toumament. Until then, he and other coaches and students will keep working long hours to make those extra bucks, known brought that concern to him, but acknowledges it could be a problem. @ Would more teachers be willing to sponsor clubs and sports teams if they didn’t have to fundraise? Often the assumption that the teacher will raise money goes along with club sponsorship. ‘ Should there be rules on corporate sponsorship or donations? It’s not a big is- Goodwill towards stu- dent activities might decrease, if people and businesses are hit up too many times for donations. sue now, and Beedle says so far the commilice isn’t even looking into this question. However, it's already hap- pening. For example, Kispiox Forest Products donated $100 to last May’s Math Olympics — a district wide event to promote math, And last spring the school ‘board approved Coca Cola’s donation of a score clock for the Hazelton Secondary gym. A gift to the school board is considered a gift to the goverument and a tax receipt can be issued for such things. Right now the board has to approve any donations to the school district, but dona- tions to teams or clubs don’t come under that guideline. Bi Should the school district be dictating to teachers how they should spend their volunteer time? School dis- trict superintendent Frank Hamilton raised this ques- tion, Perhaps common sense is a good enough guideline, he suggested. Currently the school board doesn’t have any policies on extra-curricular fundraising. Its only policy is that fundraising by students for outside agencigs, such as the Cancer Society, should be kept to a minimum, have ed- ucational value, and not in- volve instructional time. The steering committee has set a deadline of Dec, 1 for gathering information on various money-raising ac- tivitles around the school district. It hopes to report back to the school board in January or February. The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, November 26,1997 - AS SE CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD _The Mail Bag What's next? Dear Sir: I was very concerned when I read the recent Ictter to the editor from Isabel Brophy complaining about what she felt was a lack of coverage of the recent “‘Chain of Life.” I was very disappointed that The Terrace Standard would risk letting its readership down in such a way. If Pro-Life activists get upset, they might decide to blow up The Terrace Standard. Then where would your readers be? You don’t want to disappoint the Pro-Life faction. Just remember, these people are prone to violence, They will protect life at any cost, even if they have to kill to do it. And think about the personal safety of your staff, 1 sincerely hope no one was shot at through their kitchen window recently. Perhaps Terrace city cauncil will have to create a bubble zone around The Terrace Standard’s offices. Maybe The Terrace Standard should approach Kari Simpsan’s people aboul getting some extra money for. security. By not giving the Chain of Life adequate coverage, you could be creating more news than you want. Alisa Thompson, Terrace, B.C, Ministries must change Dear Sir: lam deeply in support of Bill Christiansen’s letter to the editor dated Nov. 5, 1997, ‘‘Non-aboriginal mainstream society cannot, and should not raise our aboriginal children.’’ I strongly believe that all government controlled min- istries are culturally biased against the native culture. So in regards to the human resources and children and families ministrics,I am in firm belief that most em- ployees within the ministries are ignorant to those cul- tural differences. And the ministries’ morals, judgments and values are primarily based on ‘‘the dominant culture.” As a result of this reality, a lot of native families are unnecessarily broken up. Our native children are hav- ing to be placed within the dominant culture’s homes, which in turn is doing more damage than good. All in all the ministries should become more cultural- ly aware of the native culture and ways of life. Kira Martin, Principles forgotten Dear Sir: One of the frustrating things about looking for a job today is the realization that onc is simply a commodity; a commodity of which there is a huge surplus. Equally frustrating is the fact that this surplus has resulted in the enviable position, for employers, of being able to pick and choose employees at their leisure. One prospective employer put it quite bluntly, “You're kind of old (34) to be starting a carcer’’ and “Tt’s a buyers market.” bn vee Regardless of how narrow-minded this view point was, he was correct in saying it’s a buyers market. Al- though there are always exceptions to the rule, for the most part this has resulted in people having to accept positions with substandard conditions, unpaid over- time, wnfair demands, and poverty level incomes. Some may feel this viewpoint extreme but that depends on how one defines being poor. John Kenneth Galbiaith put it very succinctly. ‘People are poverty- stricken when their income, even if adequate for sur- vival, falls markedly below that of the community.’’ For iens-of-thousands of Canadians this is exactly the case. How many of you actually believe that a workforce in a perpetual state of just getting by results in healthy businesses or a healthy economy? From personal experience I would tell you that it’s difficult to remain motivated and easy to become dis- ilusioned, However, to take the moral high ground and demand fair and ethical treatment usually results in a quick trip to the unemployment linc. Principles are commendable, but they don’t put food on the table or pay the rent. As things stand now I see no real impetus for change by employers. —- the unemployment rate is high and workers are expendable. I was brought up to believe in principles of common decency, loyalty, hard work and fairness, It’s very sad ta sec that these concepts are not valued, and have virtually disappeared from today’s workplace. Peter Randrup, Terrace B.C. A gov’t money grab Dear Sir: Re: The Terrace Standard, November 12, ‘Border post birthday makes gov’t happy.”’ That write-up shows how neighbourly friendly our federa] and provincial governments are toward the small village of Hyder, Alaska. While visiting Alaska this year I bought three, 200 grams pouches of tobacco for $8.95 each, Would you believe | had to pay customs duty of $8.36, excise of $4.83 and GST of $2.32 for a total of $15.51 federal taxes. And a whopping provincial tax of $49,990, bring- ing the total to $45.41. That is nearly $100 dollars for three pouches of to- bacco, I can see the day coming after everyone stops smok- ing and the tobacco well dries up. Where will they get the lost revenue from? Could it be for every L 1/2 grams of sugar a product contains? This tobacco witch-hunt is nothing but a billion dol- lar government money grab. No wonder the people of Stewart are tuming toward alcohol as the write-up shows. Happy birthday tobacco booileggers. Manfred Bader, Terrace B.C, The Terrace Standard welcomes fet- ters to the editor. You can mail tham to 3210 Clinton St, Terrace, B.C., fax them to 250-638-8432 or e-mail them to standard@kermode.net Our deadline is noon Friday. For more letters, sae Page AG.