In the middle of August, there was a rumor that the Alhambra Unified School District was instituting a new “club tax.” The rumor was verified by MKHS Assistant Principal of Business and Activities Nicholas Nguyen, during a school “all clubs meeting”, on August 14th. If enacted, it would force all clubs within the school district to give a percentage of the funds they’ve raised from any fundraisers they hold to ASB. This was to have the clubs financially contribute to ASB General. Students were very upset from the news.
On September 1 an AUSD Board of Education meeting was held with the main topic being the proposed policy, but eventually, a student from Alhambra High School who was attending the meeting spoke up, sharing their discontent and criticism for the policy. District Superintendent Dr. Denise R. Jaramillo was never told about the policy even though they needed her to allow any potential policies to even come to fruition. With this revelation, the proposed policy was put on hold with its future becoming uncertain for quite some time. On September 27, 2023, a Club Alliance Meeting was held at MKHS’s auditorium that had the purpose of clearing up all the rumors and misinformation being spread about the policy.
In this meeting, MKHS Assistant Principal of Student Activities, Nicolas Nguyen, and the rest of the ASB explained the current proposal for the policy. The purpose is to help financially support the General ASB, made up of all the school clubs, which was previously funded by the ASB, a small group of 40 students. The General ASB helps fund stuff such as field trips, outdoor education, science camps, book fairs, student social events, campus beautification, school logo apparel sales, and afterschool food sales. Additionally, their account also funds after school activities, programs, and related staffing needs including custodians, officials, referees, security guards, and more.
The ASB believes that this policy would make the current situation more fair for the ASB students who have had to fund both the General ASB account and the ASB club account. They have to pay for all that completely by themselves which leaves barely any money for themselves most of the time. Meanwhile, the specific different school clubs currently only use their funds for their own operations. So, when Mr. Nguyen learned about the problem after becoming the new student activities principal, he came up with a policy proposal as a solution to the problem. Allowing the clubs to financially support the General ASB benefits everyone at school. With this additional cash, the General ASB could continue to have major school and afterschool events. However, the district still wanted to hear the thoughts of the clubs about this proposed policy.
The ASB gave the attendees four different options on how much the clubs could donate to the school. First, there’s the flat contribution rate in which the clubs just give the ASB $100 from their fundraising funds per school year. Secondly, there’s the General ASB option in which the clubs could dedicate some of their fundraisers.
To raise the $100 they will donate to the General ASB for the school year. Third, there’s the 5 percent contribution in which the clubs give 5 percent of the money they’ve raised from all of their fundraisers until they reach $100. After that, they don’t have to give them any more money for the rest of the year.
Finally, there’s the 10 percent contribution, the ASB’s most preferred option, where the clubs give 10 percent of their funds from each of their fundraisers to the ASB throughout the school year until they reach $100. Yet, while it seemed like the policy was now finally becoming a reality, new information was released.
On October 12 the Aztec News learned that the policy had been yet again put on hold to be reviewed by the AUSD Board of Education since the ASB for some reason still couldn’t get the district superintendent’s approval for the policy. This leaves the future of the policy uncertain at this point.
