The Wayland Board of Education M
onday night got an earful from the student representative and the captain of the debate team about fund-raising.
Student Board Representative Jonathan Seymour and Debate Team Captain Trenton Wilcox both presented opinions that high school clubs and organizations should be allowed to engage in fund-rasining, as permitted by state guidelines.
Wayland schools for the last several years have dropped student and group fund-raising activities and instead used some revenue from the Gun Lake Casino to cover that income shortfall.
Previous school district policies have included, “Eliminate door-to-door fund-raising, reimburse clubs, organizations, PTO and other groups.”
But Wilcox, exercising some of his debate and public speaking skills, told the board, “We’re recommending the state option for fund-raising… it increases our knowledge of the world and our individual problem-solving abilities… it helps better our students’ education.”
He and Seymour lobbied on the same evening that Superintendent Norm Taylor went through the list of policies. They both asked the board to allow student groups to fund-raise in order to be able to take educational trips, which they haven’t been able to do under previous policies.
PHOTO: This year’s winner of the student Christmas card design contest was high school student Ashton Ingles, shown here with a plaque of his design. Supt. Norm Taylor shows Ingles’ card being sent out this year by the schools and in the background is administrative assistant Dawn Stein.