Where Are My Dollars Going?

As we walk around Rosemont for the second time, we buy things like yearbooks, reminder binders, and gym uniforms, but when we see the prices, we begin to think: where is all this money going? It costs $20 for a necessary gym uniform, which seems like a small amount of money, but when we multiply $20 times the approximate 1,300 students, the school has a total of around $26,000. But this is just the beginning. Add the hundreds of reminder binders, yearbooks, and spirit wear apparel, and this total skyrockets. So what about this estimated $50k? How is this going to come back to the students? Will it? Read on for answers.
Many people are involved in the school budget. Nearly all administrators, certain people in ASB, and the sponsor of ASB, Mr. Anker. These people, and others, have been interviewed for this article.
I interviewed the principal, Ms. S. Risse. I found a lot of information in the interview about the school budget. Many people think that the money we spend goes directly to the school budget and funds things like school projects. This is somewhat correct. In the interview, she disclosed that some projects that needed funding included upgrading the AC units in the school, working on the fields, (yes, they may redo the middle field instead of closing it.), and repairing infrastructure on the amphitheater steps. These would be very expensive, but they do not come out of the money from student sales. The money from student sales goes right back to the students! It goes to ASB.
Mr. Anker went a little more in depth into such a topic. He said that the money was used specifically for the students who had, in fact, spent it. He said this: “I couldn’t collect a bunch of money from this year’s students and spend it on next year’s students.” So essentially, the money that is spent by students has to go back to the students who spent it in one way or another.
Additionally, concerning another ASB funded plan, I interviewed Jack DeBoskey on this topic. Jack had a plan for his campaign statement to build an AC unit into the Gym, but this would take dozens of thousands of dollars. He had the right plan, a multi-year funding plan from many fundraisers. These, in theory, would bring funding directly into the project but in the end, this would not be allowed because by the time student government funds reached the required amount to buy the unit, the students that paid for it (and voted for him) would be high schoolers. This goes against the law that prevents money from previous students from being spent on newer students. As Ms. Risse said, these kinds of projects (building fixtures and such) are strictly district funded.
All students spend money on Rosemont, but most people don’t know where the money goes. Now here is the answer: back to the spenders.