Request By:
Mr. John W. Miles
Superintendent
Erlanger-Elsmere Schools
Box 233
Erlanger, Kentucky 41018
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Robert L. Chenoweth, Assistant Attorney General
As the Superintendent of the Erlanger-Elsmere Schools you have asked the Office of the Attorney General for an opinion regarding certain rules and regulations applicable to the school Cadet Drill Team. It is our understanding that while this extra-curricular activity is school endorsed and provides a school personnel sponsor, the local board of education has not financially sponsored the activity and the "rules and regulations" were not adopted by the local board but are self-imposed by the membership of the Team. Part of these rules read as follows:
"Section 4. A. Drill team uniforms will be provided by money made by the squad. The uniforms then will become part of the drill team property. No uniforms or props will be the personal property of any girl and will remain drill team property when she leaves.
Section 5. Money making
A. Each girl is responsible for making $70.00 for uniforms and props. Girls must make an additional $50.00 for camp.
B. Parents must be aware of this. If her daughter does not make her money, it will be her responsibility to provide it."
You have asked whether these rules are in conflict with KRS 158.290.
KRS 158.290 was enacted by the General Assembly in 1978 and reads in full as follows:
"(1) No student shall be compelled to solicit or meet any kind of quota in a fund raising activity. Solicitations by students shall be on a completely voluntary basis and no grade changes or any other sanctions shall be imposed for refusal or failure of a student to engage in any solicitations or other fund raising activity. No public school shall promote or engage in a school wide fund raising project without the prior approval of the local board of education.
(2) Nothing in this section shall prohibit student participation in classes in which salesmanship is an integral part of the prescribed curriculum. "
The only other occasion we have considered this statute, OAG 78-508, the type of issue you have presented was not discussed.
The nub of the problem here, as we see it, is whether this statute was intended to apply to voluntary extra-curricular activities sponsored or endorsed by the local school system. We do not believe there can be any question that the statute applies to solicitation or other fund-raising activities associated with curriculum, that is, with a course for which a grade is given. The fact that "no grade changes" are permitted supports this conclusion. An example of such a course would be band. A student could not be required to solicit or raise funds to participate in the school band. Also, subsection (2) of the statute denotes curriculum conconcerns. Additionally, we view curriculum here to extend to a class in a school. That is, the students in the second grade or the junior class, for example, could not be compelled to solicit, meet quotas or participate in fund raising. This would be so whether the money raising activity was a school-wide project or only for the class activity account fund.
The statute is much less clear on voluntary, extra-curricular activities. While we recognize the importance of these activities and involvement in them. There is a host of such kinds of activities permitted to exist in any school system. Many, if not most, of these extra-curricular activities through their membership engage in money-making projects of some kind or another. To say that this statute directs that a student who elects to joining a voluntary, extra-curricular activity may refuse to help in fund raising would be a death knell to their very existence. It is only through the cooperative, share-and-share-alike structuring of these activities that they continue to exist. We believe a student who elects to join such an activity also elects to share in shouldering the financial requirements of that activity. This election may very well mean having to participate in solicitation and fund-raising activities.
Therefore, it is the opinion of this office that the rules of the Cadet Drill Team are not in conflict with the provisions of KRS 158.290.