FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

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1 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS What is a student support organization (SSO)? A SSO is any organization that is recognized by WCS as a fundraising arm for the school. It could be a PTO, PTSO, PTA, Band or Athletic Booster. All must operate under the same guidelines as provided below at the federal, state and county levels. FEDERAL TAX ID QUESTIONS: Does a SSO have to be 501(c)(3) tax-exempt? The county does not require 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status for SSOs. However, donations to the SSO by companies or individuals are NOT tax deductible unless the IRS recognizes the organization as 501(c)(3) tax exempt. Therefore, we recommend you obtain 501(c) (3) status for your SSO. The IRS information page for applying for (501(c)(3) status is: Profits/Application-for-Recognition-of-Exemption. As a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization, do we have to file federal tax returns? Yes. You must file either a Form 990EZ (if gross receipts are over $50,000 but under $200,000), 990 (if gross receipts are over $200,000), or a 990N postcard (if gross receipts are under $50,000). Your return must be filed by the 15 th day of the 5 th month after your fiscal year ends. For fiscal years ending June 30 th, November 15 th is the due date. All forms and instructions can be found on It is recommended that your SSO hire an experienced tax accountant to file your federal return. STATE OF TENNESSEE QUESTIONS: Can our SSO get sales tax exempt status from the State? Yes, a SSO can apply to be exempt from sales tax on certain purchases. However, if the SSO is purchasing items to resell, such as concessions and spirit wear items, the SSO MUST pay the sales tax. If purchasing items to be used by the SSO or the school, then sales tax does not have to be paid. Go to to register online or download the application here Visit for more information. Once you have received your certificate of sales tax exemption from the State, you do not need to renew every year. A new certificate is not mailed each year, so please keep extra copies to pass along from year to year. Do we have to file anything with the State of Tennessee to have a SSO? Yes, you must file a Charter of Incorporation with the State. Every April 1 st, you have to renew your Charter. There is a $20 annual fee, and if changes are made to the Charter there are additional fees. You can find more information and forms at This is also referred to as the Annual Report. WILLIAMSON COUNTY SCHOOLS REQUIREMENTS AND QUESTIONS: Are there specific financial requirements for WCS? WCS requires that every SSO submit a copy of their Bylaws to Jason Golden and Leslie Holman at [email protected] and [email protected] whenever they are revised, so that a current copy is on file with WCS. WCS recommends the fiscal year for SSOs should begin no later than July 1 st. A year-end financial statement is also due to Jason Golden ([email protected]) or Leslie Holman ([email protected]) by July 31 st every year. An electronic copy is preferred, but you could also send it to them at 1320 W. Main St., Ste. 202, Franklin, TN See Board Policy

2 content/pdf/boardpolicies/4503.pdf. WCS has forms that you can use for this report, at As a SSO, do we need to carry insurance separate from the school? Yes. Every SSO should carry its own liability insurance of $2,000,000; including D & O (Director and Officer) insurance of $1,000,000 and Crime and Fidelity Bond (which protects your asset of cash) of $50,000. WCS cannot cover you for liability or other insurance issues. Williamson County Schools Board of Education must be listed as an additional insured and certificate holder. This is a prerequisite to any SSO use of school facilities. Your insurance company should be given this information to be listed: Williamson County Schools Board of Education, 1320 West Main Street, Franklin,TN When you renew your insurance each year, you must send a copy to Lenny Ramirez at [email protected]. This also applies to any outside vendor that will be on school property. They must name WCSB of E as an additional insured as well as your official SSO name. The vendor should complete two certificates at that point. Where can I get more information about WCS requirements for SSOs and Booster Clubs? Williamson County School Board Policy can be found on the wcs.edu website. This policy details the guidelines for SSOs and Booster Clubs operating in WCS. Board Policy: You can also go to for additional information. Our SSO has decided to hold a fundraiser at our school. What do we need to do in order to have this fundraiser? Per Tennessee Law, you must file a fundraiser request form any time you are raising funds for your SSO. This form is available on the WCS website. If you are holding your fundraiser on school grounds, you must also file a facilities request form (also available at wcs.edu). Your proof of insurance must be on file with Lenny Ramirez (listing WCS as an additional insured and certificate holder). All forms must be submitted at least 2 weeks in advance of the event. See School Board Policy: What is the difference between an active vs passive fundraiser? See School Board Policy: If you hold an assembly or use classroom instruction time during a fundraiser, it goes from being passive to active. An example of an active fundraiser is a fun run held during the school day. A passive fundraiser is any fundraiser held after or before school. You are limited each year to the number of Active fundraisers. Most SSO's should not be engaging in active fundraisers. Before you get far in planning a fundraiser that might take instructional time, speak to your Principal. Can a SSO have its own website? Yes! SSOs are encouraged to have their own websites. These can be linked to the school website but cannot be managed by WCS. Be wary of using free sites as they usually include advertising that is not under the control of the SSO and might be inconsistent with your goals. Can a SSO or Booster club have a Facebook Page and/or Twitter account? Yes, you can. Any way that you can reach out to parents and communicate more effectively the better, we are in a social media age. Any SSO social media pages must be named as such, and/or list a disclaimer to the school and WCS. Pictures of students that are taken OUTSIDE of the classroom or school, such as at football games, public pep rallies in the gym, etc. are allowed, as they are considered public domain. Otherwise, a media release would have to be obtained. Only Public Domain pictures are acceptable for SSO and Booster Clubs to post.

3 Can SSO purchases be shipped directly to the school? Yes, as long as the items have been paid for in full. A copy of the receipt must be given to administration or the school bookkeeper. Any items not paid in full will not be accepted for delivery at the school. Can gifts be given to individuals through the SSO? The SSO can spend funds on general things for the benefit of all the teachers (snacks, etc.) or buy equipment for the school that might be used by only one teacher (books for a particular classroom), but it can t spend its funds for personal gifts to individual teachers; this must be done privately, without SSO funds. Any gifts must come from parents personally, not through the SSO. Can the SSO write a check to the school for items being purchased through the school? Yes. Often it is better for the school to order items that the SSO is purchasing or helping to purchase. Your Treasurer needs to write the check made out to the school, and include a restricted donation letter stipulating where the funds are to be spent (a restricted letter with two executive board signatures). For example, if your SSO is spending $5,000 for additional books for the library, the letter would state that the SSO is donating $5,000 for the purchase of library books. The school bookkeeper would keep the letter for their records, and will always give a receipt to the SSO. Be sure and get that receipt and keep it with your financial records. A school cannot write a check to the SSO, so if you are purchasing something together, it must go through the school account. Can the SSO reimburse sales tax on expenses made on behalf of the SSO? Yes, there is no law or guideline that states you can t reimburse for sales tax. It is highly encouraged that you plan for purchases and have your sales tax exemption for any item/s that are being purchased for the benefit of your SSO. Should SSO s pay for sales tax on items for purchases made for the SSO? If the item is being purchased to be re-sold such as concessions or spirit wear, it is encourage that you go ahead and pay sales tax at the time of purchase and allow the vendor to remit sales tax to the state. If the item being purchased is for the direct benefit on the SSO, present your sales tax certificate to the vendor at the time of purchase. Should our Principal be included in our SSO Executive Board meetings? Yes, the principal or his/her representative should be at each Executive Board meeting. The law actually requires that there must be at least one representative from the school faculty as a member of the governing board, but no WCS employee can be Treasurer or have signature power over a bank account. As a practical matter, this usually means that an employee shouldn t be President of your Board, since most PTOs give the President and Treasurer signature power. The principal or representative cannot dictate on their own how SSO funds should be spent. They can make requests for funds on behalf of the school and faculty. It is also recommended that a teacher representative attend each Executive Board meeting. Having a teacher representative gives the SSO a good way to communicate more with the teachers and get feedback from them. WCS employees can vote on PTO Boards but can t be the majority of the voting members. Is there anyone else who should attend Executive Board Meetings? You are encouraged to invite your School Board Representative, Dr. Looney, and the Superintendent of Middle/High or Elementary Schools to attend your Executive Board meetings. This is a great way to develop a relationship with your School Board member, and let them see what is going on within your SSO and your school community. If you want to discuss the fundraiser process or related issues, you could invite Jason Golden to answer questions. What is the process for volunteering in the schools? WCS has three levels of volunteering in the schools. Each level has a different process. Tier 1 volunteers are those parents that come for an event, such as a fall festival, field day, book fairs. Tier 1 volunteers only need to sign in when they arrive at the school and wear a temporary name tag (such as a sticker). Tier 2 volunteers are parents who help in the front office, library, and

4 nurse s office. They must fill out a confidentiality agreement and have a copy of their driver s license on file at each school in which they are volunteering. These forms need to be turned in each year. Tier 3 volunteers are those parents who have one-on-one contact with students, such as tutoring, field trips, etc. They must go through a background check including fingerprinting. The application and process can be found on We suggest you mention this at one of your first PTO meetings, to avoid a parent volunteer missing a field trip. After completing the Tier 3 process, what is the next step? Approximately 2 weeks after completing the process, you can check with your Principal, or designated school employee, to be sure you are on the approved list. You will NOT hear from WCS if you are approved. Once you have confirmed that you are approved, check with your school administration for dates and times for when Tier 3 badges are made. All schools in the county have badge-making equipment. The badge is free of charge unless you need a replacement badge. There is a $5 fee for a second badge if you lose the first. GENERAL SSO QUESTIONS: Our school year is ending, and our new Board will be taking over. Is there a specific time that the new Board takes over? It is recommended that the Board transition follow your fiscal year. However, it is greatly encouraged that the new Board work with the old Board from April (or May) until the fiscal year ends. Typically elections take place in April, and the new Executive Board members should immediately start being a part of the Executive Board. The nominating committee should put the word out to the general membership about positions available and job descriptions as early as late January, so that nominations are in place by March. After July 1 st, the new Board members should change over the bank information to the new signature holders as quickly as possible. Your bank will require the minutes from your last meeting listing the new officers. Do you have any tips for making the transition from year to year easier? It is recommended that each office have a binder of information to pass along each year. This binder should include a copy of the by-laws, and any instructions relating to the position. The SSO Bylaws and Policies and Procedures (if applicable) should be reviewed each year by the outgoing and incoming Board to see if any changes need to be made BEFORE the annual election meeting. Some SSO Bylaws include a President-elect. Having this position makes the transition easier because the new President has been at the prior year s board meetings. Please see the SSO Guidelines or Bylaws for more information. You can also [email protected] for examples. Do we need to create a budget every year? Yes. It is important to have a working budget, so that your Board will know what expenses are expected and where extra funds can be spent. For example, insurance must be renewed every year, so insurance costs must be budgeted. It also helps provide a guideline so that funds are not over spent in one area over another. It is encouraged that you keep a reserve amount in your budget each year just in case you have unexpected expenses. Your Principal should be involved in this process, as they will know where funds might be needed over the course of the year. Your Principal CAN NOT dictate exactly how much or where funds are spent. That is decided by a quorum of the SSO Board as specified by your organizations Bylaws. Our Athletic and Band Boosters would like to create separate clubs. Is that O.K. and how do we do that? Yes, it is O.K. to have separate Athletic and Band Booster or Fine Arts Clubs. They should umbrella under the SSO, so that they can use the tax-exempt status of the SSO, as well as the sales tax exemption, insurance everything that the SSO carries. They should be required to operate under the By-Laws and Policies and Procedures of the SSO, and follow the same WCS requirements and policies. They may also adopt their own Policies and Procedures, provided they follow the guidelines of the Bylaws. The executive board must vote to

5 approve the SSO's Policies and Procedures. Each Club should have its own bank account, with two signatures required on each check. They must submit monthly/quarterly (as defined by the Bylaws or Policies and Procedures) detailed financial statements to the SSO, as well as a statement at the end of the fiscal year. The President or Committee Chair of each Club should attend Executive Board Meetings and may be considered a member of the Executive Board. Thus, under this suggested process, the clubs are not separate legal entities but are a part of the school s SSO while operating with a separate account that allows athletic boosters the ability to restrict their funds to supporting the school s athletic activities. Ultimately, under this process, these groups would be subject to the decisions of the main SSO. Are there any Fundraisers that are NOT O.K. to engage in? Any fundraisers involving alcohol will be denied by WCS, even at an off-campus event. If you are having a Silent Auction and have items containing alcohol as bidding items, the alcohol must be kept off campus, and you can only include a picture of the item at the auction. For example, if you have a wine and cheese basket, a picture of the wine bottles would be placed in the basket, and the bottles of wine would remain off campus. As a general rule, fundraisers that are generated for a specific purpose (such as BYOT, library books, playground equipment) tend to incur more community support. Spirit nights at local restaurants are fine, but cannot be promoted on the school website. They can be promoted through the SSO/Booster Club Facebook, twitter or SSO managed website. During Fundraising Opportunities, can reserved seats be a part of the auction offerings? The conclusion we have reached is that as a public school, we cannot reasonably limit access to these elementary school events that are open to the public or prioritize one parent s access to children s events over another on the basis of an auction winner. This is a value judgment regarding access that has to be made by the Superintendent s designee for approving fundraisers, not a legal analysis. If you are currently auctioning seats or plan to, please remove them from your auction list. Additional Questions or need some help? Contact [email protected]. We have a leadership team from all around the county of PTO leaders that are here to help you in any way. We are an away. If we don t know the answer, we know who to call for you.