No. All Federal, State, and private grants, as well as corporate solicitations need to be housed in the District’s Financial system. When applying for a grant please start the process by filling in the District’s Intent to Apply Form.
All grants being managed through the Financial system must be approved by the School Committee before they can be officially accepted by BPS. Similarly, the School Committee’s approval is required before BPS can gain access to the grant funds in conjunction with City Hall. These steps will occur after the Intent to Apply has been submitted. More information on this can be found in the Grant Management Library.
Yes, if the funds were raised with that intent or if there are appropriately identified surplus funds from another student activity.
Student-directed fundraisers are considered student activities. In those cases, the Student Activity Agency Account can be used for this purpose. Fundraising done by parents, teachers, or other adults for a non student activity purpose are not able to be deposited in the Student Activity Agency Account and should be considered private funds. Contributions to charitable organizations may be made in the similar manner as payments to other City vendors. If your school wishes to make a charitable donation with student activity funds, please reach out to the BPS Finance Office.
Staff travel and PD cannot be paid for through the Student Activity Agency Account. They can be paid for through BPS funds and must be held within the City’s financial system to the extent that students or BPS employees were involved in the fundraising of such funds.
Gift cards donated specifically for student activities should be treated no differently than cash. Schools receiving gift cards should provide the donor with a receipt noting the donor, date received, gift card amount, purpose of the gift card, and person accepting the gift card. The gift card should be stored in a locked cash box. When the school is ready to use the gift card, the person who takes it out of the cash box should be different than the person who uses the gift card. The person using the gift card should return the used gift card along with a receipt documenting what was purchased with the gift card. This should be included in your monthly reconciliation statement.
The Superintendent allows School Leaders to accept gifts up to $10,000 with any gifts accepted in amounts exceeding $5,000 being reported to the Superintendent within 5 business days. Gifts exceeding $10,000 shall be accepted by the School Committee.
It depends on the purpose of the funds and where the funds will be deposited. If the funds raised are for student activities AND will be deposited into the Student Activity Account, then yes, parents could use the City of Boston's tax ID. If the funds raised will be deposited into a Parent Council account, then no, parents cannot use the City of Boston's tax ID.