School board approves advertising of updated fundraising policy, debate over mobile payments continues

The Volusia County School Board on March 25 voted unanimously to grant authority to advertise proposed amendments to School Board Policy 07/2007 (fundraising), a rewrite that adds sponsorships, clarifies definitions and codifies accounting procedures for school internal funds.

Board members said the rewrite clarifies that sponsorships require board approval and that every fundraising or sponsorship activity will be assigned a project number for tracking. The district’s chief financial officer described the changes as cleanup and said the policy explicitly adds sponsorships and sets financial controls.

Why it matters: the draft policy tightens rules about how school-sponsored funds are handled and seeks to prevent staff from using personal payment apps for school internal accounts. Several board members supported banning use of Venmo, Zelle and Cash App for school-managed funds but urged the district to provide a fast, district-controlled alternative for parents and community donors.

Chief Financial Officer Matt Cease told the board the draft “adds sponsorships to this board policy,” and that the rewrite defines fundraising and sponsorship and lays out planning and accounting procedures. He said the proposed policy requires board approval for sponsorships so the board is not “blindsided” by agreements and that each activity will have a project number to track receipts and expenditures.

Board member Reuben Colon (District 5) pressed for a practical payment alternative, saying the district should not merely prohibit popular mobile payment apps without offering an equally easy option for donors. He raised point-of-sale and donor platforms as possible paths and urged a June 1 effective date so the new policy would not upend events already in progress; the motion to advertise was not changed to add that effective date during the meeting.

Staff described technical work already underway: ITS and software teams are developing a revised integration with the district’s FOCUS system to accept credit-card payments with district-controlled card readers and to handle merchant fees centrally rather than passing those fees to parents. District staff said a pilot of card readers has occurred and that software work will continue over the spring and summer; a full rollout was described as expected after testing (timeframe described as summer; specific release date not specified).

Board discussion touched on risks that individual staff accepting payments on personal apps can create (missing accounting trails, potential for theft or mismanagement) and on the current merchant-fee practice in FOCUS, which charges fees to the payer. Staff said they are working to allow the fee to be charged to a district account instead.

The motion to advertise the proposed amendments to Policy 07/2007 was made and seconded; the board voted unanimously to advertise the revisions. No dollar amounts for sponsorships or specific new payment-vendor contracts were included in the proposal; staff said those operational details will be developed alongside the policy work.