Maryland Community Newspapers Online
Members of the Frederick County Board of Education should stand their ground on the new policy that prevents schools from sending home with students fliers from community groups.
The policy, which went into effect this year, put an end to the school system's longtime practice of sending community groups' fliers home with students, a practice that took quite a toll on staff members' time.
The prohibition has hurt the recruiting efforts of the Boy Scouts, according to Fred Broadrup, an assistant Scout master for Troop 371 and a committee member representing the Catoctin Mountain District for the Boy Scouts in Frederick County.
He told the school board recently that recruitment for the county's the Appalachian Trail District dropped from 200 to 100 students, compared to last year. Recruitment for the Catoctin Mountain District sank from 320 new members last year to 160 members this year. He attributed the drop directly to the new policy, and asked the school board to reconsider. It should not.
For years, community groups and nonprofit organizations were able to inform families about their activities, or simply their existence, by sending home fliers in students' backpacks. As long as they followed guidelines spelled out by the school board, groups were able to send home with students information about their special events, meetings, and more.
But the school board revised its policy in part because of three recurring issues: the staff time required to handle the task; the legal problems of denying a request; and the distribution of fliers from religious organizations.
Nothing has changed in regards to those concerns to give the school board reason to reconsider changing the policy again.
Membership in Boy Scout programs has been declining for years, from 3.4 million in 1999 to 2.8 million in 2008, according to the organization's annual reports, but the Boy Scouts are resourceful. They merely need to find new avenues to reach potential recruits, whether it's through community centers, churches or individual Scouts bringing in new members.