The issue of class money often creates an anxious hubbub within the student body: will there be enough to not have prom in the gym? Despite the worries, ASB treasurer Ally Crouch assures that funds will grow.
“The reason why the funds are so low right now is because we have a lot of money that we raised last year that has not transferred over yet so some funds are lower than others,” Crouch said.
At every student council meeting held, there is a report on how much money each class has.
“At our last meeting we had, they said sophomores had zero [funds] but they really had $500 so I think that people tend to freak out at those meetings and get this perspective that we do not have any money but really the money has not been transferred,” Crouch said. “The reason why sophomores have [none] or that it looks like they have [none] is because they have not been gifted their money yet. Every sophomore class gets gifted $500 when they come in to the school. Everyone starts out with that.”
The money that the sophomore class is gifted comes from the general ASB fund.
“The general ASB fund is what is raised by everything in the school. All of the activities and athletics go to the ASB,” bookkeeper Heidi Fraser said. “The current ASB officers look at the budgets and look at how much is raised and they approve every fundraiser and they approve spending money in the ASB fund. So anything raised goes to a general fund and then it gets dispersed amongst the classes.”
The class money is ultimately spent during senior year on prom and other graduation expenses. The amount of money raised determines how lavish of an affair prom will be.
“Last year’s class did very well,” leadership adviser Jamie Mooring said. “They organized their money well, they did a lot of fundraisers especially in their junior and senior years. Enough so that prom was decorated and uplit. There was a huge ice sculpture viking. Those are things you can only afford when you manage your money and do the fundraising correctly.”
However, just like this year’s classes, last year’s senior class did not begin with a huge amount of money.
“In the beginning, our class actually had more than the seniors last year; the juniors had more than the seniors. So [the seniors] began to panic and towards the end there were a lot of different fundraisers,” Crouch said. “There are types of fundraisers that can bring in a lot of money depending on what fundraiser you do. They could have $3,000 and then do one fundraiser and now have $8,000 but it generally ends up working out regardless of what they have in the beginning of the year.”
Despite this, losing money is a challenge that classes face. One of the causes of classes going into debt or losing money is students not paying for purchased items.
“Instead of pre-ordering the t-shirts, [those in charge of the fundraiser] order 100 t-shirts and use the money out of their funds to buy the t-shirts and then the student must pay them back through the bookkeeper. Some students have not paid back yet so the money has not been transferred back in,” Crouch said.
In these instances, the payment appears as a fine on the students’ accounts.
“The [students] have signed for the items that they purchased so by the next year it does not end up being a deficit because by then their fines have been paid,” Fraser said. “If their fines are not paid, they are not allowed to go to prom or graduate. So it is possible that someone could have a fine in their sophomore year that they have not paid until their senior year but if they want to go to prom or want to walk at graduation then they will pay their fines.”
However, it has never been a problem that students have not been able to raise money for their class.
“The joke is kind of ‘you better raise money or you are going to have your senior prom in the gym’. But you look back and that never actually happens,” Crouch said. “You can really trust class officers because they will get the job done and they will make sure that prom is fun and that they have raised enough funds for it.”
