SRC Votes To Revise Outdated School Donation Policy
By Tim Jimenez
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The Philadelphia School Reform Commission Wednesday night voted to change a 31-year-old policy, now making it easier for schools to accept much-needed grants or donations.
Established in 1982; the policy says gifts, grants, donations or scholarships worth $5,000 or more needed SRC approval. Thirty-one years later, the district's Chief Financial Officer Matt Stanski says that amount became too small and was causing big burdens for schools.
"Because the threshold was $5,000, if they could get a donation for let's say $7,500 for an event, but the event was coming up quickly and there wasn't an SRC meeting, they would actually just reject the donation."
But now, the SRC voted 5-0 to bump the magic number to $20,000.
"Allow schools and/or offices to seek these smaller grants and allow them to receive the funds in a quicker fashion but still within a compliant way."
Quarterly reports will list those donations for the SRC, who still has the power to vote on any gift over the new threshold.
