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

[COD]

We homeschool our kids, yet somehow we managed to get them involved with 4H, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Little League, etc. I don't think the schools need to be bothering with managing the data flow on the stuff outside groups want to send home with the kids. The principals have it right - just say no.

[Pamela Hufnagel]

I support the continuation of the present school board policy of sending flyershome with students. I honestly don't see it as that much of a hardship to add a flyer to an envelope or to toss one out that is of no interest. The proposed disclaimer- with a modification of your addition to "Not printed at any ACPS expense" or similar might head off some phone calls to the school or division office.
I think most of the citizens of this county have the ability to recognize that these flyers are simply announcements, not a plan to subvert any reader over to a different way of thinking.
Thank you for keeping the community up to date on discussions and your views.

[Carrie Taylor]

I like the idea of the email list, however, I would also to suggest that the groups sending out the flyers be responsible for collating them for the various classes and putting them in the teacher's boxes in addition to printing the appropriate number of copies.

[Sara]

Comment posted on Dec. 8, 2006: "I honestly don't see it as that much of a hardship to add a flyer to an envelope..."
What elementary grade do you teach, and do you have a teaching assistant? It isn't about "hardship". It's about the importance of instructional time and the goals of our schools. As ever-increasing responsibilities take our attention away from the classroom, teachers have to protect the valuable time we have to devote to our students and parents. This need should be respected. Don't forget, we like to send home some important papers, too: school and classroom newsletters, students work, announcements, reminders and updates,student reports, letters to individual parents, assignments, and other papers from art, music, library, PE, guidance, and PTO. Sit and stuff 24 student envelopes with 10 papers for 30-45 minutes (longer if I have have to match the names on the papers to the names on the envelopes), or use the time to teach, call/write/conference with a parent, take kids outside for recess, handle an important disciplinary matter, or plan a good lesson? In our schools, every decision should begin with these words: "We strongly believe that it is best for our students...". As a matter of fact, I'd love to see Brian's newsletter titled "KidsMatter"!

[bawheeler]

Sara - Thanks for the feedback. When this matter was before the school board, I brought up the fact that we had lots of other sources of backpack items that had to be taxing our school resources. I have been keeping track of my 5th grader's backpack ever since. Here are the grand totals from September to December:
Homework=92 items; Teacher items=29; PTO items=22; Principal items=12; Division-level items=8; outside non-profits=3 items. This data certainly speaks to your observation about the sources of flyers from within our school. Brian Wheeler