During my last year as a yearbook adviser (before I became a Professional YERD), I was told about a new California law that required all ASB funds collected within one school year to be spent within the same school year. As a result, my school Activities Director asked me to “zero out” my account at the end of the year. Knowing that I would not be returning in the Fall, my thoughts were “Whoopie! Full-color endsheets, spring supplement, yearbook camp, new cameras, new laptop… What else can I spend that money on???”

Of course, had I been staying, I would have been distraught. I worked very hard at keeping my account in the black. I always made sure that I had enough money to not only pay my final invoice, but to be able to start the new school year with a healthy amount of cash. Not only was this useful for purchasing beginning of the year supplies, but I always had enough money to pay my first deposit to the yearbook printer regardless of how pre-sales were going.

Now that I AM “the yearbook printer,” advisers are telling me that their schools are saying the same thing to them. They must “zero out” their accounts by the end of the school year. What are they to do?

The first thing you want to do is download the “California ASB Accounting Manual” from the FCMAT website. (Here’s a link: http://fcmat.org/2015-asb-accounting-manual Page 58 of the manual specifically deals with allowable carryover amounts in ASB accounts.

In short, do you have to zero out your accounts? No.

The Ed Code was designed to protect parents and students from giving money to a school for a certain cause, only to have the school not use the money for the purposes intended. If you have a reasonable carryover amount and a specific reason for needing that carryover, you can be exempt from this policy by having your District or School draft their own ASB Policy/Manual. Please see the manual for more specific instructions and guidelines.