School district limits advertising sent home with students

Las Virgenes Unified School District students will slump a little less under the weight of their backpacks, now that the board of education has revised a policy to limit the amount of flyers, brochures and other promotional materials allowed to go home with the children.

The revised board policy limits the distribution of materials to children and their parents regarding school-related events and volunteer-run sports and scouting programs.

Print advertising given to students has increased so much that, at times, the school district had to pick up the cost of copying, collating and distributing the materials.

“It’s gotten somewhat out of control,” said Deputy Superintendent Donald Zimring. The amount of “stuff” going home in backpacks, he said, takes away from teachers’ time and resources.

“They (the advertisers) want us to count it, zerox it, collate it, bundle it and distribute it,” said Zimring. “We’re saying no.” He added materials must be ready for distribution.

The former policy limited the distribution of materials to “nonprofit” groups, but according to school officials, some nonprofit groups are commercial businesses with salaried employees.

“It annoys me that we have become the distributors for business,” said Sandra Pope, a teacher at Willow Elementary School and co-president of the Las Virgenes Educators Association. She added some businesses have become “pretty savvy” and say their materials have been approved.

Now that all materials must be approved through the superintendents’ office prior to distribution, there will be no confusion.

“(Sometimes) important documents are sent home and are buried in noise,” said Terilyn Finders, board member.

The new policy states: “Materials approved for distribution shall further the district’s intended purpose, directly benefit the students, support the basic educational mission of the school district, or be of intrinsic value to the students.”

The policy also specifies that the materials will not promote any political or religious interests.