Let's stop here for just a moment. How did you feel when you read that headline? Does the idea of corporate sponsorship of public school facilities make you feel uneasy?
OK, now what if, instead of renaming the stadium, you were to come across an ad such as the one seen here, courtesy of www.PhillyBurbs.com, in a hallway at your child's school:
OK, now what if, instead of renaming the stadium, you were to come across an ad such as the one seen here, courtesy of www.PhillyBurbs.com, in a hallway at your child's school:
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| A School Media Inc. employee applies an ad in the hallway of an elementary school in the Pennsbury School District last fall.The ads must all be about health, education, nutrition or safety. |
How do you feel about this scenario? Better? The same?
As a parent, surely, you have an opinion. Should we be doing everything possible to shelter our children from marketing messages? Should we be less concerned with avoiding advertising (is that even possible?) and instead focus on educating them on the power of marketing, teaching them to be smart consumers?
Unless you have been watching nothing but Disney Junior and visiting only PBSKids.org over the past few months (that IS possible when you have small children at home), you surely know that the NPSD, like many other districts, is facing some pretty hard financial times.
As a parent, surely, you have an opinion. Should we be doing everything possible to shelter our children from marketing messages? Should we be less concerned with avoiding advertising (is that even possible?) and instead focus on educating them on the power of marketing, teaching them to be smart consumers?
Unless you have been watching nothing but Disney Junior and visiting only PBSKids.org over the past few months (that IS possible when you have small children at home), you surely know that the NPSD, like many other districts, is facing some pretty hard financial times.
The Alternative Revenue Committee, a group of community volunteers charged with the task of, you guessed it, identifying alternative means of bringing revenue into our school district, has come up with a variety of innovative ideas for bandaging our budget and one of them is to consider allowing advertising in some areas of our schools (renaming various facilities, allowing advertising on www.npenn.org, the list goes on).
A considerable amount of revenue could be made available to our schools by allowing responsible advertising to be placed. What if all the classes and programs currently on the budget chopping block could be kept? Wouldn't that be great! But...how do we define "responsible advertising"?
Hopefully this article has piqued your interest and created a desire in you to learn more and share your own ideas! If so, you won't want to miss this:
Tonight (Wednesday, April 11th), North Penn School District Superintendent, Dr. Curt Dietrich invites you to another NP Community Forum entitled "2012-13 Budget Update and Alternate Revenue Streams" at 7 p.m. in the Penndale Middle School auditorium, located at 400 Penn Street in Lansdale.
Dr. Dietrich will continue his discussion of the 2012-2013 school district budget and will be using an interactive polling technique in which participants can give feedback via text. (A demonstration of this nifty use of technology was given at the school board meeting last night. Audience members can cast votes from their cell phones. Results will be immediately tabulated and displayed on the overhead screen for an instant visual of the attendees' opinions. This is exactly the kind of creative and technologically innovative approach you would expect from a top-notch school district like North Penn, am I right?)
Topics will include:
Budget Update: New information regarding the budget including revenues, expenditures and proposed budget cuts will be provided.
Advertising: As described above, some school districts are placing ads in schools, in buses and in outdoor spaces. This concept will be explored and participants will be asked to give their opinions via text messaging. Immediate results will be shared. (This should be a very engaging portion of the evening!)
Fundraising/Development: The concept of building a development function in the school district, similar to the university model, will be explored. Participants will be asked for feedback. (The summary of this given at the school board meeting sounded very promising!)
Other Revenue Ideas: Here's your time to give us your ideas to bring new funding sources into NPSD!
Q & A: Dr. Dietrich will once again reserve time to answer questions from the audience.
Now, more than ever, it is critically important that the entire community is involved in the decision-making surrounding the funding of schools. The North Penn School District hopes that students, families, staff members and community members attend this Community Forum.
If you are unable to attend, North Penn Television will be covering this forum live on Comcast Cable Channel 28 and Verizon Cable Channel 29. You can also view the forum online at http://tinyurl.com/npenn41112.
What are your thoughts on all of this? Stop in and share them!
If it gives additional funding to our schools and gets them interested in education then why not. The Philadelphia Phillies have a reading program that many of NP schools participate in...isn't this marketing too? I have no problems with it...I think it's great....gets the kids interested in baseball, the Phillies and reading. So why not!?!
ReplyDeleteVery interested to know the results of the meeting!
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