West Aurora-brand credit card? Not so fast, school board says
A previous version had an incorrect first name for board member Valerie Dykstra.
West Aurora District 129 trustees are little leery of a proposal by a credit union to issue credit and debit cards bearing the district's cherished Blackhawk logo.
Four of them had enough questions Monday night about the contract with the Kane County Teachers Credit Union to postpone a vote on it.
The school district would receive an amount equivalent to .25 percent of purchases users make with a credit card, and .20 percent with a debit card. So if someone bought a $100 jacket with a credit card, the district would receive 25 cents. The credit union estimated that if there were 1,350 active cards, each charging $625 net worth of purchases a month, the district's share would be $25,313 annually.
The credit union wants district mailing lists of employees, students and alumni, so it can contact them for sales.
That disturbed board member Valerie Dykstra. "I certainly feel it would be a violation of the trust given to us by our taxpayers, our students, our alumni ... so (the credit union) can increase their bottom dollar," Dykstra said.
Trustee Neal Ormond was worried about a clause that specified an ad for the credit and debit cards would have to be included periodically in district publications, because the contract did not specify what publications. He feared that meant the sports boosters' game programs, for which the boosters sell advertising at $1,000 to $1,200 a page. He also wondered if it meant putting fliers in the online weekly student "backpacks" schools send out.
But community relations director Tony Martinez said those would not be targeted. Only materials he sends out from the central office would be used, Martinez said.
Business superintendent Angie Smith said the district does not keep a list of alumni. Employee addresses are public information, she said, noting the district had recently released it in response to a request filed under the Freedom of Information Act.
Students' names, addresses, ages, genders and other directory information can be released, unless a parent or guardian objects, according to district policy.
The proposed contract says the district would only have to release "mutually agreeable" information.
The credit and debit cards would be for people who join the credit union. Residents of Kane, McHenry, DuPage, DeKalb, Grundy, Kendall and western Cook counties are eligible to join, even if they are not teachers.
Trustee Amie Thompson opposes the idea altogether.
"I think it promotes bad credit habits with our young people, and I don't think we should promote this," Thompson said.
Smith said the credit union has offered to provide some consumer education to students about managing credit.
School-branded credit cards, also called affinity cards, are common for colleges and charitable organizations. Smith said she did not know of any other school district in Kane County considering an affinity card.