Advertising in School for Hatboro-Horsham

A meeting was held earlier on in the week, taking place on Monday night, in which the school board for the Hatboro-Horsham school district gathered together to vote on a policy that would allow specific advertisements to be featured within the schools. The school board members voted unanimously to pass the policy so that advertisements would be allowed in the schools as soon as possible. The policy clearly states that the school board gets to decide which types of commercial advertisements are featured within the schools, as long as they help to benefit the students in some sort of way. One of the school board members, Mark Opalisky, has said, “We approved the policy, but there’s still a lot of steps until advertisements show up.”

Now that the board members have unanimously voted on the policy, the school district has the opportunity to enter into any type of agreement they would like with certain businesses that are looking to advertise within the schools and on any of the properties that are owned by the school district. The school district can also work on sponsorships with different companies and businesses, providing information about the sponsorship on school district stadiums and at different events for the schools. The original creator of the policy, Bob Reichert, believes that this policy will help to make up for budget cuts and help the school district to generate revenue that benefits everyone involved, especially the students. Reichert said, “Anything we can do to generate additional revenue, or strengthen our revenue with all the challenges we face with the budget is something worth looking at.”

School officials have made it clear that this policy was not designed to allow any type of advertising to take place but that it is more for different forms of advertising, each of which must have some sort of benefit for the students and particularly promote education. Reichert says, “Controls will need to be maintained, so that the district does not advertise things that aren’t in the best interest of our program and our kids.” Noncommercial advertising will not be allowed and is actually barred, which has been featured in the policy. Any sponsorship will also need to be approved by the board before they can go through with it all.

Overall, the decision to allow advertising in the schools makes a lot of sense. It is something that many different school districts around the country have already adopted and it is a fantastic way for the school district to generate revenue for its students.