NEWMAN – Student fund-raising activities are getting a close look from school board members, who may loosen guidelines which currently steer classes or organizations away from the sale of unhealthy snacks in favor of non-food items.

Superintendent Rick Fauss said he believes food-based fund-raisers are in conflict with the district’s efforts to promote sound nutrition and combat childhood obesity. But during a recent workshop, board members expressed a desire to review the policy which governs fund-raising activities outside the school day.

Questions about fund-raising policies surfaced after this year’s senior class agreed to give up the concessions at football, volleyball and basketball games so that the athletic department could operate the snack bars. That revenue, Athletic Director John Labno said, was needed to help cover the increasing costs of running the school’s athletic programs.

Later, a senior class request to hold a See’s Candy sale as an alternative fund-raiser was denied, prompting class President Boden Holland to bring the matter to the school board.

Seniors were eventually given permission to hold their candy sale in light of the situation, but from that episode a two-fold question has emerged: Should the district relax its policy against  allowing food sale fund-raisers, and should the assignment of the snack bars be reconsidered?

Fauss said requests for food-based student fund-raisers, the variety which typically involve door-to-door sales, or sign-up sheets circulating in the workplace, have been denied in recent years in accordance with the district’s wellness policy.

But when seniors agreed to give up the snack bar in recognition of the athletic department’s needs, Orestimba teacher Catherine Quittmeyer noted, students didn’t realize that they would run into conflicts with the wellness policy in their alternative fund-raising efforts.

“I don’t think anybody was thinking about the wellness policy because this was being sold off-campus. They thought they had other ways of making the money,” she commented.

Board members indicated a willingness to revisit that aspect of the policy.

Board President Derek Solano said he had concerns about limiting the sales of items which hold great fund-raising potential for students.

In previous discussions, it was pointed out that the fund-raising market for products such as See’s Candy is typically adults, not other students.

“I think we should look at some new wording,” Solano said of the policy.

Fauss said, though, that other fund-raising options - whether the sale of candles, wrapping paper or other non-food products - or activities such as jog-a-thons offer viable alternatives for students to raise funds. Food items which meet school nutritional standards can be sold as fund-raisers under the existing policy.

“If you make them find a healthier alternative they will. I’ve never seen a group say they couldn’t find an alternative,” the superintendent said. “I just think it is a far better approach.”

The current policy states that the administration is to “discourage” use of food sales for fund-raisers, Fauss noted. In practice, the sale of items such as cookie dough and candy have not been approved.

The concession stand poses another question.

The Orestimba Student Council approved the athletic department’s request to operate the snack bars this year. Traditionally, the concession stands have been senior class fund-raisers.

District administrators were not aware the snack bar had changed hands until Holland went before the board.

“I was very surprised to find that the seniors had lost the snack bar,” stated board member Laura Elkinton, who said she would like the assignment of the fund-raiser reviewed for next year.

From his perspective, OHS teacher and coach Dan Burgin said at the workshop, having the athletic department in charge of the concession stands at games benefits the greatest number of students.

“Not every student is an athlete,” Elkinton countered. “That money is not helping all students, either.”

Burgin and Labno said that seniors who want to work the snack bar are able to do so, and will receive fund-raising credit for their hours.

Whereas door-to-door fund-raisers fall under the wellness policy guidelines, the snack bars do not.

“It is hard to know where to draw the line, but snack bars operate within a very controlled environment and other fund-raisers do not,” said Fauss. “Fund-raisers depend solely on students to promote an unhealthy product to an undetermined customer, while the snack bar includes adults selling to the general public.”

Whether the board should be involved in deciding who operates the snack bar is one more question surrounding the fund-raising debate.

Typically, Fauss said, that decision would be made by the student council.