Schools Put Plastic on Fund-Raising Front Lines

Calling it a better solution than the endless candy drives and jog-a-thons that are the staple of PTA fund-raisers, a group of Ventura County education boosters is set to offer an alternative: the school credit card.

Every time someone buys anything with one of the special Visa cards, the Ventura County Schools Federal Credit Union will donate 22 cents to a designated local school, said Joy Waldrep, chief executive officer of the credit union.

Interest rates, at 14.9%, will be the same as for the credit union’s standard credit cards, Waldrep said.

The credit union also will donate $1 a month to a school named by any customer who holds an active checking account, Waldrep said. In addition, account holders will be issued lists of businesses that have agreed to give a portion of their sales to a chosen school, she said.

The program has the support of county schools chief Charles Weis, who said it is time to relieve PTAs and students of the burden of raising money for field trips, musical assemblies and other extracurricular activities.

“It is not really within the mission of schools to have kids learning how to beg for money,” Weis said. “We think this is a much more logical way.”

What is unclear, however, is whether the scheme will generate the roughly $1 million raised annually by PTAs throughout Ventura County.

Terri Belkin, who represents 44,000 Ventura County parents as president of the 12th District PTA, said it may be more realistic to view it as another option in the quest for cash.

“We will still need to do the jog-a-thons,” Belkin said. “But it’s an option that makes it simple to support the schools and not have to spend any extra effort organizing a fund-raiser.”

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Others see the idea as a safer alternative to sending children door-to-door selling candy, gift wrapping and compact discs.

“One of these days, something is going to go wrong and it’s not going to be pretty,” said James Petrarca, president of the Ventura County Performing Arts Foundation, which is putting together the Youth Education Sponsor Network.

The foundation is spearheading the effort because cultural programs typically are the first to be cut when funding runs short, Petrarca said. The program will be available to all 210 public schools and may be expanded to private and parochial schools later this year.

Petrarca and Weis, who is a member of the Performing Arts Foundation board, will formally unveil the YES Network at a press conference later this month, Petrarca said. The cards, checking accounts and directories will be available at the credit union in early February, Waldrep said.

The Performing Arts Foundation will also send the directories and information about the credit card program to 63,000 parents, teachers and school administrators next month, he said.

The network is modeled after a similar one in the Moreno Valley School District and after “shop locally” programs sponsored by many cities and shopping centers, Weis said. The Conejo Valley and Moorpark unified school districts recently started similar programs involving merchants at The Oaks mall in Thousand Oaks, he said.

By contrast, the YES Network will be countywide. Already, retailers, loan agents and insurance brokers in Ventura, Thousand Oaks and Oxnard have signed contracts agreeing to take part, Petrarca said.

The merchants decide how much they will give to schools, he said. All donations are tax-deductible.

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One of the merchants is Steve Kerman, owner of Fast Frame outlets in Ventura and Thousand Oaks. Kerman agreed to donate $10 for every framing order.

“I liked the idea of being on a list with other businesses that give back to the community,” Kerman said. “That puts us in an elite group. And I hope all of us make a lot of money doing it.”

Waldrep agreed that the network will benefit not only schools, but her 7,000-member credit union. Although the credit union makes the donations on transactions, Waldrep is banking that people signing up for Visa cards and checking accounts will bring other business with them, she said.

“With our name before the PTAs, it brings us memberships that allow our credit union to grow,” she said.