Folsom, CA- As school districts in California brace for mid-year cuts, Folsom Cordova students use incentives to boost revenues.

 

Students Ben Cheung (Folsom High) and Alexander Poladyon (Peter J. Shields) were the first grand prize winners of this year’s Student Attendance Campaign. The Attendance campaign was the creation of FCUSD student board representative, Mark Sohl, and was designed to help fill the district’s budget shortfall by boosting attendance— leading to an increase in revenue.

 

Governor Brown announced Tuesday that he will have to pull the “trigger” on this school year’s budget. The budget was initially created using speculation on this year’s economy. Unfortunately, California fell short of these inflated numbers. For FCUSD, these reductions are estimated to be $850,000 in transportation funding and $250,000 in ADA (base revenue per student) funding for a total loss of $1,100,000.

 

The Student Attendance Campaign is geared toward a 1% increase in attendance district wide. This mere 1% increase will yield over $1,000,000 in additional revenue to our general fund— effectively combating the budget shortfall.

 

There are three eligibility periods for students to qualify for the grand-prize drawing. During the first eligibility period, which ran from August 22, 2011- October 15, 2011, there were 7,770 students who qualified with perfect attendance. A computerized-random sample selects the winners for each term. This term’s winners received an Apple iPad 2 for their coveted perfect attendance.

 

One thing to note about this campaign is that it is run by the Student Advisory Board (SAB). Chaired by Sohl, the SAB has representatives from all secondary schools in the district. That means in actuality it is the students taking the reigns and pushing this operation toward the set goal of 1%. If successful, district students could in fact neutralize all negative effects of the mid-year cuts.

 

FCUSD encourages students to hold enthusiasm toward attendance and offers this term’s winners a warm congratulation. With the given cuts to public education, attendance is the key to overcoming future deficits.

 

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