By Attorney Thomas B. Mooney, Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut

The “Legal Question of the Week” is a regular feature of the CAS Weekly NewsBlast. We invite readers to submit short,
law-related questions of practical concern to school administrators. Each week, we will select a question and publish an
answer. While these answers cannot be considered formal legal advice, they may be of help to you and your colleagues.
We may edit your questions, and we will not identify the authors.

Please submit your questions to: legalmailbagcasciacorg. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dear Legal Mailbag:

One of the parents at my school has been very supportive, and I have done my best to show my appreciation to him. However, he totally blew me away the other day when he offered to donate $50,000 to my school to support my teachers and enhance educational opportunities for students. I almost fainted with delight at his generosity.

I have so many ideas for that money, but at the outset I have a question. With the new teacher evaluation system, state testing, snow days, you name it, my staff is stressed out these days. Using about $2,000 of this donation, I want to take the entire staff out to dinner to reward them for their work and to give them a chance to socialize with each other in a more relaxed setting. My question is whether I can spring for wine with dinner, or is there some prohibition against spending public funds on alcohol? I love wine as much (or more) than the next person, but I don’t want to overstep.

Signed,
Dollar Signs

Dear Dollars:

Whoa! You are way too far down the road with your plans. To be sure, the statutes permit school districts to accept the “donation or gift of personal property to be used for the educational benefit of students” (which includes cash). However, accepting such a proposed donation is way above your pay grade because it raises issues that affect the district as a whole.

You must bring this issue to your superintendent for further discussion. Conn. Gen. Stat. Section 10-220, the statute that lays out the powers and duties of boards of education, provides in relevant part that boards of education must “provide an appropriate learning environment for its students which includes (1) adequate instructional books, supplies, materials, equipment, staffing, facilities and technology, (2) equitable allocation of resources among its schools, (3) proper maintenance of facilities, and (4) a safe school setting . . . .” Accepting a huge gift for a single school may well raise issues of equity among schools. Accordingly, the superintendent will have to talk to the board of education about this situation. Indeed, the board of education may well have a policy governing the acceptance of gifts.

I certainly don’t want to rain on your parade. But I think it unlikely that your school will be permitted solely to benefit from the potential donor’s largesse. I anticipate that the superintendent will be talking to your parent about possibly expanding his perspective to include the district as a whole.

In any event, there is no law that specifically prohibits alcohol at a school event (though many districts have policies prohibiting alcohol on school property), or that specifically prohibits spending public funds on wine or other alcoholic libations at an off-site school staff event. However, as a matter of custom and common sense, I don’t know why school officials would subject themselves to the criticism that such expenditures would invite. BYOB.