It's Boosterthon Season Once again At Butler Elementary

[wilcogal1974]

Brace yourselves parents, pretty soon your little darlings will be coming home with information on Boosterthon. To say that they will be excited about the promise of prizes based upon the amount of money they raise is an understatement.

What is Boosterthon you say? Well, thanks to the Butler PTO and the Butler Elementary Principal, this is an outsourced group of young adults brought in to interupt time during your children's structured learning day to make money for their company by hocking Chinese goods on your children, all in the name of character building, good attitudes and exercise.

It's one thing to fundraise for a school when it is a choice. But our children are forced to have valuable classtime interupted and listen to this scripted sales pitch for a weeks time during Boosterthon Days at Butler Elementary.

I really hope these "character builders" are background checked and finger printed by the Walton County School District before infiltrating the school and mixing amongst our children.

Just say NO to BOOSTERTHON!!

 

[momof2kids]

Just wondering how much volunteering you do for the fundraiser a done at local schools? Do you know how much time and how many people it takes to organize & run an event that size? and the money it brings in is a lot. Have you walked through the school with boosterthon people? Have you seen what they do in the classroom? They are not interrupting tests, quizzes, etc. they look in the window of the door and check with the teacher to see if its a good time.
Maybe you should get involved and volunteer to organize the next fun run instead of complaining.

 

[sunspotbaby]

Was there ever any new playground equipment purchased for Butler? That was the 'goal' last year. Just wondering.

 

[momof2kids]

Yes. Other things purchased with money raised thru this have been: active boards for almost all classrooms along with sound and paid for labor for installation, elmo projectors, a compute lab, electric hand dryers, mulch, among other miscellaneous items.

 

[momofmany]

Dearest wilcogal 1974,

Surely you are aware that the classroom doors are now locked and barging in by Boosterthon or parents during the instructional day is not permitted. Not to mention, any person who enters the classroom must be checked in through the office where their drivers license is ran through the system.

Boosterthon is a huge fundraiser that is optional for students; however ALL students benefit from the profits and the quick character building lessons.

I clearly do not understand how or why parents want to bash something that benefits their child's school. If you don't want to participate that's your option....don't try to make others think Boosterthon is a bad thing when students benefit from it!

{shaking my head}

 

[wilcogal1974]

Dearest Mom of Many??

First of all I recently picked up my sick child at Butler after being called by the school nurse. Both my child and I bypassed the office while I took him out of the building. Nice security.
Hopefully, these strange young adults go through some semblance of security before mingling in our school with our children all day for a whole week.

Secondly, my children do have a choice to not approach family members or strangers for money to give money to the Boosterthon organization. However, my children do not have a choice when they are subjected to a weeks worth of forced infiltration by Boosterthon members in their classrooms during valuable learning time, or mindless Boosterthon "character building pep rallies"

Again, fundraising and donating to important causes are just that, donations. Children especially should not have to feel pressured into raising money or made to feel less because their family cannot contribute extra money for "prizes" If you've ever been a teacher during Boosterthon season, you would see the disappointment on those children's faces that didn't get prizes because they couldn't solicit for their public education.

Fundraising unfortunately is a sign of the times, it's too bad we are forced to outsource instead of looking to our community to support our neighboring schools and teachers.

 

[momofmany]

Dearest Mom of Many??

First of all I recently picked up my sick child at Butler after being called by the school nurse. Both my child and I bypassed the office while I took him out of the building. Nice security.
Hopefully, these strange young adults go through some semblance of security before mingling in our school with our children all day for a whole week.

Secondly, my children do have a choice to not approach family members or strangers for money to give money to the Boosterthon organization. However, my children do not have a choice when they are subjected to a weeks worth of forced infiltration by Boosterthon members in their classrooms during valuable learning time, or mindless Boosterthon "character building pep rallies"

Again, fundraising and donating to important causes are just that, donations. Children especially should not have to feel pressured into raising money or made to feel less because their family cannot contribute extra money for "prizes" If you've ever been a teacher during Boosterthon season, you would see the disappointment on those children's faces that didn't get prizes because they couldn't solicit for their public education.

Fundraising unfortunately is a sign of the times, it's too bad we are forced to outsource instead of looking to our community to support our neighboring schools and teachers.

1st...nice if YOU to not follow school policies. Way to be a model for others.

2nd....if you are that against your children being subject to infiltration by Boosterthon members then I'm sure children could be excused from participating. As far as I know Butler tends to be overly accommodating when it comes to parent requests.

3rd....have you ever been a teacher during Boosterthon season??????

Lastly, looking to our community to support our schools and teachers is what is intended with Boosterthon, so your last statement really contradicts itself.

Respectfully waiting for your reply....

 

[Grayton Girl]

Wilcogal:

I couldn't agree with you more. I am very opposed to this type of fundraising. There are many other options that the school and PTO could use in order to accomplish the same goals of raising money and/or teaching character values to children. It is true that students who don't or can't participate feel badly about it. While participation is "optional," there is a lot of peer pressure for students to participate, especially when there are presentations made in the classrooms by enthusiastic young people and when "prizes" are awarded to those who raise the most money. If I understand it, we are asking children to sell things (usually they are overpriced trinkets such as home decor items, kitchen things, etc., although I have not seen the items in this fundraiser) to friends and family, all of whom usually support the school in other ways.

For the record, I am a long-time resident of Walton County and both of my children (now grown in in college) went to school in South Walton from kindergarten through 12th grade. I have been involved in all types of fundraising at all of the schools and have volunteered countless hours in all levels of the school system.

I am sure that the parents, teachers, and administrators who are behind the Boosterthon have the best of intentions. But their time and efforts would be better spent pursuing other projects that involve the children in a more positive way. I wish the schools would re-think the policy of encouraging and promoting this type of fundraising, regardless of the financial success that such fundraising might bring.

 

[Jdarg]

Wouldn't it be wonderful if the community provided more financial support for the public schools that educate probably 95% of the students in South Walton. Strong schools that don't have to beg and scrape for funds should be the norm here.

I have thought about the possibility of community wide fundraising for the South Walton regular public schools as a group. I don't know if it has been tried and successful in other communities, so if anybody out there has found a way to get businesses and groups to really fund public schools like they do private and charter schools, let us know! It would be a pot of money kept separate from the WCSD funds, raised by our community, for our schools.

 

[momofmany]

Great news for those of you who were so concerned about Boosterthon members interrupting your child's school day! There will NOT be any interruptions in your child's classroom. Now lets see if we can help Butler Elementary reach their fundraising goals. See how you can help volunteer or make pledges. Every little bit helps.