To flyer or not to flyer...

At church this morning, several friends approached me to inquire about the flyer controversy which was covered in a Daily Progress article last week (and before that in C-Ville Weekly).  Given their questions, I thought it might be helpful to share some additional information on this issue.

At our meeting Thursday, the Albemarle County School Board is expected to change the policy related to the distribution of outside materials in one of two ways:

1. the Board will allow equal access to ALL outside organizations subject to reasonable time, place, manner and other content-neutral restrictions; or
2. the Board will eliminate the distribution of all outside materials to our students. HOWEVER, school and governmental agencies (e.g., PTO/PTA, booster clubs, County Parks and Recreation, etc.) would still have access. 

Principals were surveyed and they have recommended to the Superintendent that the board adopt option #2.  At our last meeting, I indicated I would support option #1 and I brought to the Board my research on what other school divisions were doing around the country by adding disclaimers on all outside flyers.  Staff have drafted the following disclaimer for the Board's consideration:

“Albemarle County Public Schools neither endorses nor sponsors the organization or activity represented in this material.  The distribution or display of this material is provided as a community service.”

You may be wondering why we are having to change our policy?  It is because of recent court cases that have informed School Boards they cannot deny a request from a religious organization if they allow other outside organizations to distribute materials.  Current Albemarle County policy explicitly prohibits the distribution of literature that is for religious purposes.  I have also received questions about how the Boy Scouts can distribute materials since they reference "duty to god" as an obligation of membership.  I turns out they have special access to distribute flyers because of a 2003 law passed in Virginia.  So because of this Virginia law, if you allow anyone to distribute flyers, the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts get access too.  If you ban all outside groups, the law would not apply.

Albemarle's current policy was challenged over the summer at Hollymead Elementary when school staff denied distribution of flyers related to a vacation bible school.  After further review and in light of recent court cases, school staff allowed the flyer to be distributed and set in motion the School Board's review of the flyer policy. You can read the press release from Liberty Counsel thanking us for promptly reversing the denial at Hollymead. 

According to the material for this week's Board meeting [to be posted here on Monday], there were requests to distribute 97 flyers during all of 2005-06 across the division.  For arguments sake, let's assume all those flyer requests were intended for all students in all schools.  According to my math that works out to be one flyer being distributed every 2 school days.  If you collected the flyers for distribution in the backpacks on Fridays and adjusted for the fact not every school gets every flyer, it seems to me based on this data that at the most you would have 2 flyers a week being sent home with students.

If I was writing the laws... I'd keep the policy we have and deny religious materials from being distributed.  However, I support the continued distribution of materials by outside groups, even if the courts require us to accommodate religious materials, because it means groups like the following who applied in 2005-06 will still have access:

4-H
Basketball Leagues
Book Festivals
Boy Scouts
Cheerleading Clinics
Children’s Theatre
Contests & Art Related
Cub Scouts
Football Leagues
Girl Scouts & Brownies
Library & Story Time
Soccer & Lacrosse Leagues
Softball Leagues
Summer Camps
Swimming Events & Teams
YMCA Programs

I think the positive aspect of communicating these enrichment opportunities to our students, particularly if the rate of distribution is as low as two flyers a week, is a benefit we should support.

Brian Wheeler

P.S. We should add to the proposed disclaimer: "and are not printed at taxpayer expense."  Outside groups certainly shouldn't expect us to pay for the printing and paper.

Comments

[Gary Conley]

Brian,

I appreciate your newsletter, it's nice to get wind of matters pertaining to education before they are enacted. I fully support your position regarding distribution of pre-printed, pre-sorted flyers with an added disclaimer. It would be a shame to be deprived of notification of extracurricular activities via the occasional flyer. I dislike "junk mail" as much as the next person (maybe more), but find a great deal of value in the occasional notification found in our weekly school packets.

Personally, I believe our society has taken intolerance to a new level, making the concept of free speech applicable to secular concerns only. What has happened to personal accountability and freedom of choice? If parents do not want their children exposed to the "evils" of organizations such as Scouting, why can't they just recyle the flyers? Thank you for injecting some common sense into the discussion.

[bawheeler]

Gary - Thanks for the kind feedback and for adding your comments to the discussion. Best, Brian Wheeler

[Sara Witt]

While I can appreciate arguments on both sides, as a teacher, I would like to see the distribution of materials from outside groups stopped. The information may be valuable to some parents, but if they knew how much instructional time is needed to pass out these materials, they may see less value in it! Teachers are passing out more and more flyers from outside groups each year, along with student papers to go home, class newsletters and announcements, notes to individual parents, school newsletters and announcements, information from other teachers or specialists, and county flyers or forms. Those who do not have teaching assistants in the classroom have to choose to cut instructional time short so children can organize these papers, or they must spend planning time stuffing take-home envelopes. With so many papers coming home, many parents grow weary of the time it takes to sort through it all, and then they miss important information from their child's teacher or school. How many times have I heard a parent say they didn't receive/see something that was sent home? Speaking as a parent, I dread getting the take-home envelope and having to look at so much stuff. It seems to me that a simple solution would be for schools to have a community bulletin board near the main entrance where flyers can be posted and read by anyone interested. Copies can be left in the office for parents to take if they see something on the board that interests them. Let's remember that our classrooms are places for our children to learn and grow, and the time they spend there is valuable, but limited. Don't we want to practice what we preach and use our time wisely?

[Tony]

The solution:
Apply the same rules that are in use in Email Marketing to School Fliers. opt-in or opt-out. Furthermore, get the kids out of the process.

Here's how it would work:
At the time of signing up for the school year, parents can opt-in or opt-out to receive special offers from third-parties. They could check whether the want religious material, charity, or even commercial marketing. Schools, in turn, could rent their list for some extra cash and the packages could be mailed once or twice a month.

This benefits everyone, the parents are receiving marketing that they may be interested in (example, Dell has some great deals on Laptops for the school, and this Church wants to save your soul), the schools make money out of renting their list, and nobody (organization) is left out!

[Tony]

Another idea:
Sell (or donate for 501c3's) advertising space in the school newsletter.