It’s time to buy a sweatshirt or a cookie at the school store, a prom ticket, a Mr. LHS ticket, or a homecoming ticket, but it’s cash only. And the only thing you have is your venmo. Guess it’s time to hit mom up for 10 bucks.
However, if the school district allowed us to use Venmo, or some other digital payment app, this wouldn’t be a problem.
Venmo is a mobile payment app owned by PayPal that allows users to send and receive money. It would be more convenient if school districts decide to use Venmo so you wouldn’t have to bring cash everywhere. It would also be easier to count money since Venmo already says the total, instead of counting cash manually, which takes up a lot more time. If you had to count cash, you may have miscounted but you don’t even know it.
While this service would be convenient, it is simply not allowed in the school district.
Amity Small, the district’s Business Manager and Director of Communications, said the reason Londonderry schools can’t use Venmo is because they are ”being funded by taxpayer dollars” so each year the school district has a “major financial audit,” to ensure the district is handling money “appropriately.”
“We have to show we have processes for handling money that are verified and approved by different people at different levels,” Small said, “and Venmo does not allow for us to do that. Venmo is linked to an individual, not the district, like our checking accounts are.”
House 2 Assistant Principal O’Connor thinks Venmo is an ‘incredible’ tool to have and makes things ‘a lot easier,’ but he also has those same concerns. Since he is the admin overseeing all the clubs, he has to make sure all advisers are following the rules set by the district.
“The auditing firm thinks that Venmo could be misused or misappropriated and even having people steal money out of the account.” O’Connor said.
O’Connor also said there are exceptions, however, certain organizations like Booster Clubs or the PTSO can use Venmo since the district doesn’t control those funds.
That being said, there needs to be some kind of online payments for school districts without fees. So, a solution is to use Venmo. The only fee Venmo has is a 3% fee that is charged when you send money using a credit card when paying.
If we can’t use Venmo, there are plenty of other apps we can use that are used for non-profits. An app called Big Sea, shows many non-profits schools can use. Including Fundraise Up, Dynamics 365 Finance Features, and FreeFunder. There are probably pros and cons to each one of these funding apps, but there must be some kind of app to use for funding for schools. Can’t we just try rather than just saying it can’t be done?
Let’s go, LHS. We are in the 21st century, and high-school students and teachers don’t carry cash on them anymore. It’s time to catch up to the new generations and to start using funding apps instead of cash.
