What gifts can Wake teachers accept? New policy gives more guidance on what’s allowed.
Wake County school leaders want to give teachers more guidance on what gifts they can accept while also showing equity to families who can’t afford big gifts.
Wake County’s current school employee gift policy tells teachers they can only receive “token gifts of insubstantial value.” The school board’s policy committee backed a new policy this week that allows teachers to accept gifts of up to $75 from individual parents and community members while also exempting PTAs and groups of parents from the $75 limit.
“We want to honor our teachers,” said Kendra Hill, senior director for employee relations. “We want our parents to be able to honor their teachers.”
The board could vote on the updated employee conflict of interest policy in November.
Exemption for group gifts
The Code of Ethics for North Carolina Educators says teachers must refuse to accept significant gifts, favors or additional compensation that might influence or appear to influence professional decisions or actions.
But Wake’s current wording about only accepting token gifts of insubstantial value is vague. PTAs have complained that some Wake schools have interpreted the policy to mean they can’t let PTAs give gifts to teachers.
AJ Muttillo, assistant superintendent for human resources, told board members his office gets calls from employees about whether they can accept some gifts.
“Whatever the amount the board decides is helpful to employees to know what they can accept,” Muttillo said. “It helps me provide that guidance to them.”
Wake County has about 11,000 teachers.
School administrators had presented an initial version of the new gift policy in September. But board members asked them to revise it to make clear that gifts from PTAS and groups of parents were exempt from the gift limit.
The updated wording now says drawings, door prizes and other items awarded by the school system, professional associations or parent organizations to an employee aren’t subject to the gift limit. Muttillo said this exemption would include cases where multiple parents chip in to provide a class gift to a teacher.
It also exempts gifts that teachers receive that benefit their classroom or school.
Viewing gift policy through equity lens
Much of the debate about the policy at Tuesday’s policy committee meeting was over whether Wake should set any dollar limit for gifts from individual parents.
School administrators had proposed a $50 limit for individual gifts. Hill told the board that setting a limit provides equity and consistency across the district.
“We don’t want our parents to feel like, if I’m not able to give then that becomes a detriment for my child, that’s something that will be held against them,” Hill told the committee. “It’s a balance that I know the board will ultimately have to make in terms of what you guys think is appropriate here.”
That equity concern was echoed by several board members. They said that students will talk about the gifts that their parents give teachers.
“The policy allows us to remove the stigma that could be attached to people who can’t give,” said board member Monika Johnson-Hostler, who chairs the policy committee.
Board chair Lindsay Mahaffey recalled her days as a private school teacher when one of her colleagues got a gift of a free flight to anywhere in the country. She said it left some students feeling bad their parents couldn’t match the gift.
Should there be a gift limit?
But board member Cheryl Caulfield advocated either not setting any dollar limit or raising it to $200. She said a $50 limit wouldn’t be enough to cover things like a massage that parents might want to provide to teachers.
“I really have a problem with trying to limit what we can give our teachers,” Caulfield said.
Some board members balked at having no individual gift limit.
“The idea of pay to play is too slippery,” said board member Lynn Edmonds. “We do have very gracious parents that are able to do a lot and leaving it wide open is not appropriate.”
Some board members also felt $200 was too much for individual gifts.
After talking about setting a $100 limit, the policy committee agreed on $75 as a compromise. Board members said that if parents want to give more than $75 they can give to the school or chip in with other parents for a group gift to a teacher.
