Carroll student clubs allowed to continue fundraising by selling ads, including political ones

The Carroll County Board of Education opted not to further change its policy on school-related fundraising after few comments were received during a public input period on the topic.

No vote was held, and no board member at the June 12 meeting objected to keeping the policy as it is.

“We only received a couple of (public) comments which were in favor of leaving the policy unchanged,” Superintendent Cynthia McCabe said during the board’s June 12 meeting.

Board of Education President Marsha Herbert said advertising is an important source of revenue for student athletics, extracurricular music programs and other student organizations.

“We need to keep this policy the same as it is and carry on, because we’re here for students and parents of Carroll County, and they use that money wisely,” Herbert said on June 12.

The school board updated the policy in September based on revisions submitted by Assistant Superintendent of Operations Jonathan O’Neal last August. He said the updates were intended to give schools more flexibility to raise funds as they see fit.

“The general intent here is to give schools a little more flexibility to engage in appropriate fundraising,” O’Neal said.

But McCabe said in May that some of the revisions created more questions than they answered. Board legal counsel Edmund O’Meally said at the May 8 meeting that the policy limits the fundraising abilities of student groups that do not have a staff sponsor, such as religious groups.

“Largely, those revisions, the first in many years, were meant to allow some greater flexibility in school-related fundraising,” McCabe said. “Following adoption, questions have arisen regarding the interaction of a limited open forum under the Equal Access Act and selling advertisements under the policy and regulations. As a result, we wanted to return the policy and regulations for further board discussion.”

Board member Steve Whisler said at the May 8 meeting that he would like to again update language in the policy to shield schools from political “nonsense.”

A limited public forum limits free speech only in that it bans ads depicting drugs, alcohol, and other salacious products, O’Meally said.

“It’s either a limited open forum or no forum,” O’Neal said May 8, “but it’s hard to find a middle ground. So, if we’re selling advertisements, then they may be sold to, with certain exceptions, most groups.”

The advertising and fundraising policy must be content-neutral and viewpoint-neutral, O’Meally said, meaning it could not restrict one political group from advertising while allowing advertising from those that support a rival idea. Political speech is also among the most protected forms of speech in the U.S.

The Carroll school system’s current political neutrality policy only restricts school employees from engaging in political speech, O’Meally said.