Corporate Sponsorship of Education

[IowaStatePhiPsi]

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/liv...0149827.htm?1c

West Phila. high school's name is up for sale
For $5 million, bidders can brand the Microsoft school set to open in 2006. Single rooms go for less.
By Susan Snyder
Philadelphia Inquirer, November 11, 2004

Philadelphia's new high school being built in partnership with Microsoft Corp. has attracted worldwide attention for its anticipated technological feats, but will it attract lucrative bidders interested in naming it?

The Philadelphia School District intends to find out.

For $5 million, the district plans to sell naming rights for the school, which is scheduled to open in September 2006 in West Philadelphia near the zoo, said Ellen Savitz, the district's chief development officer.

And it also will sell naming rights for individual classrooms (about $25,000 each), the auditorium, and other sections of the school, Savitz said. Collectively, the effort could raise $15 million to support the project, she estimated.

"If Lockheed Martin decided to name it," she said, "it could be that."

But there are restrictions. No alcohol or tobacco companies, for example, are eligible. And the School Reform Commission ultimately would have a say over whose bids to honor.

Plans for naming rights came as the school panel yesterday announced proposed neighborhood boundaries for the school and approved a 40-year lease with the Fairmount Park Commission for the site.

Boundaries for the school, at 41st Street and Parkside Avenue, largely take in the feeder patterns of University City High and Overbrook High, district officials said.

Interest already is intense among local residents hoping to get their children in the school.

Seventy-five percent of the slots will go to students within the neighborhood boundaries. If more eligible students apply than slots available, a lottery will be held. Students do not need certain test scores or grades to be eligible.

The other 25 percent of slots will be open to students citywide, with selection also to be determined by lottery, according to the district proposal.

The boundaries, Savitz said, are larger than those for a regular school because the district wants to make availability as broad as possible, while still keeping it largely a neighborhood school.

District officials emphasized that both the boundaries and admission plans are subject to change, depending upon input from City Council.

Council has a say because the district is leasing land from the Park Commission. Council is to consider the lease agreement next Thursday.

Dubbed "The School of the Future," it is expected to use the most advanced technology available for education and operations.

With the assistance of Microsoft, the district is working with experts from other countries, including Australia and England, and professors from prestigious universities, including Harvard and Stanford.

It will open with a class of 175 ninth graders. Tenth grade will be added the following year, and 11th and 12th grades in subsequent years, with enrollment eventually reaching 750.

Under the lease with the Park Commission, the district, in return for use of the land, agreed to pay the commission $1 million. The district also agreed to give a parcel it owns at 8730 Old Lion Rd. in Roxborough to the commission for recreational purposes, and it committed to upgrade and maintain athletic fields near the Microsoft school.

District officials and the commission said they were pleased with the terms of the deal.

"It's nice to have a good deal where you get your fields improved, you get much-needed financial help, and you get a great facility in your park system," said Robert N.C. Nix 3d, chairman of the Park Commission.

District officials say they hope to break ground in February.

Of the naming rights, Savitz explained that because the school had a special focus, it would need additional funding.

In 1997, she said, when the High School for the Creative and Performing Arts opened on Broad Street, the district offered up naming rights to the school for $5 million.

It got no takers, she said, but it received a lot of interest in naming certain rooms. For example, Wachovia Auditorium is a naming right for which the bank paid $750,000. The school received $7 million for various naming rights.

Microsoft, which is offering expertise but not money for the new high school, does not plan to opt for naming rights, because it is hoping to replicate elsewhere the model it builds in Philadelphia, she said. And it wants to do that without providing extra funding. It will, however, host a Microsoft hospitality center or visitor center within the school, she said.

I have classes in two different [Insert donor's name here] Innovative Learning Centers. I don't know what makes them so innovative. They're just classrooms with expensive audio-visual equipment of the same type that can be found in classrooms all over campus. Frankly, if selling the naming rights to various parts of a high school for up to $15 million can save the taxpayers that much money, it's fine with me. Just dont forget to add a coffee shop to the commons.

[hoosier]

Now that even NASCAR is accepting hard liquor sponsorships, can the Jack Daniels High School be far away?

The former mayor of my home town was Harry Baals, and I don't think there is a single street or building named for him - for some reason.

At Birmingham-Southern College some years ago, they had the "Snavely Student Center."

One morning they awoke to find some of the letters missing, leaving

"S A E Stud Center"

[Lil' Hannah]

Originally posted by hoosier
The former mayor of my home town was Harry Baals, and I don't think there is a single street or building named for him - for some reason.

Yes there is.

[mu_agd]

i see absolutely nothing wrong with it if it's going to be a benefit to someone's education. colleges already do this, so why can't high school's. i know i took classes in the accenture classroom and the p&g hallway, etc. and those classrooms were always outfitted with the latest technologies, computers, and software to learn from.

[sugar and spice]

I'm all for it to a certain extent -- although I think it's extraordinarily depressing that it's gotten to this point. My school district, for example, had an exclusive contract with Coca-Cola that meant that Pepsi products couldn't be sold on school properties, etc., and they gave the district a certain amount of money per year. Sometime after I left the school district decided not to renew that contract because they didn't like having that oblgiation to Coke -- which I think it stupid because it's mostly going to end up being Coke vending machines on school properties ANYWAY since they're already there, and -- at least at my school -- we only had to walk across the street to find a vending machine selling Pepsi products if we really wanted them.

However, I do think that it gets a little weird when you start getting into the issue of corporate sponsorship controlling what the kids are exposed to their studies -- like those "news" programs that some schools force their kids to watch in homeroom that are sent out by certain corporations in exchange for sponsorship.

[Tom Earp]

Necessity of getting money into the school systems breeds all kinds of funny things to do.

We had a Coke Machine at our House and could not get it service. I asked the Active Chapter if they were getting any rebate. No was the respones. I told them to contact Pepsi, ask them if they were interested in being the sole supplier and what would they give us. If they did, call Coke ask them the same thing and if did not want to play ball, tell them to get thier friggen machine out of the House!

Money will make strange bed fellows! Use the Marketing to help The Chapter.

[hoosier]

Originally posted by Lil' Hannah
Yes there is.

I still learn something everyday. Is there any other Mayor who got less tribute?

By the way, my grandfather often said his father (or a friend, I forget which) went to Johnny Appleseed's burial, and didn't have to cross the river, so he's not really buried in that park.

[CutiePie2000]

Home Depot wangled its way into a kiddie playground...(BELOW)
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http://www.nsnews.com/issues04/w1107...112204nn2.html
Home Depot crosses school line

Jane Seyd

jseyd@nsnews.com

LYNN Valley parents Steve and Anna Coffin say they think the new adventure playground at their children's elementary school is fine.

But the couple say they could have done without the sea of orange Home Depot T-shirts worn by volunteers, a song about Home Depot sung by their kids and the corporate logo that is part of a new playground sign.

Steve, who teaches elementary school in another school district, said he thinks Lynn Valley elementary crossed the line when it allowed the "overwhelming corporate presence" of Home Depot into the school in exchange for $15,000 US ($18,000 Cdn) for the new playground.

"Schools shouldn't be in the business of helping companies hawk their goods," he said. "I don't think it's appropriate to have your children exposed to advertising in schools."

He's not the only parent questioning the corporate involvement in the new playground. "You're just selling your soul to the devil," said joy Fai, whose son attends Grade 2 at the school.

Steve, whose seven-year-old son Russell and nine-year-old daughter Nadine both started attending Lynn Valley elementary this year, said he first became uncomfortable with the Home Depot presence in the school during a "meet the teacher" evening, where parent volunteers involved with the playground project were all wearing Home Depot aprons inside the school.

A number of kids were also playing with orange promotional Home Depot hammers, said Steve.

On the day parents showed up to build the playground - a day students were in school - Anna said all 200 volunteers were handed an orange Home Depot T-shirt and cap and told to put them on, resulting in a "sea of orange" logos that kids could see from their classrooms. But Anna said she got more upset when she heard elementary school kids singing a song featuring Home Depot during the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Anna said she asked her kids where they learned the song and was told they'd been taught it at school. "I think that's pretty sick," she said. "They're associating the kids themselves with Home Depot."

Fai said she also wasn't pleased to see her son singing the Home Depot song. "It's just very disturbing," she said. "Is it really worth it? Now all these children just think Home Depot is the be all and end all. . . I don't believe it was the right thing to do."

Steve and Fai said they'd like to see the sign outside the playground with the Home Depot logo taken down.

Steve said he thinks the Home Depot sign violates the school district's policy against allowing schools to be used for commercial gain.

But school district officials said they don't think there is anything wrong with what happened.

It was the parents' group at the school, not the school district, that decided to seek out corporate funding, said Ian Abercrombie, director of facilities and planning for the North Vancouver public school district. Abercrombie said it's common for parent groups to ask for corporate help to fund playgrounds.

"According to our policy, it's quite acceptable to put up signs showing our funding partners," he said. The Home Depot logo on the sign is "no more than four inches in size" and is similar to signs put up at other schools acknowledging corporate donors, he said.

Robin Brayne, North Vancouver school district superintendent, said as long as the corporate presence isn't offensive or unduly exploitive, there is nothing wrong with it under school district policies.

"It's a school playground. It's not in the school," he said.

Brayne said he also doesn't believe children at the school were taught a Home Depot song for the playground opening.

School board chairwoman Ginny Diebolt was at the playground opening and described it as "one of the biggest celebrations and one of the happiest" that she has attended.

"I believe it was a high-spirited community event," she said. "We are not upset or concerned about it." Diebolt said she didn't see everyone wearing Home Depot T-shirts on the day the playground was built or hear students singing a Home Depot song at the opening. "I'm a Home Depot shopper and I didn't know they had a song," she added.

Representatives of the parents advisory committee and Lynn Valley elementary principal Charis Kalesnikoff could not be reached for comment to press time.