ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Whose Money Was It, Anyway?

One way to foster responsibilities in students is to let them make some decisions. And another way is to set a good example.

The recent case of shoddy bookkeeping at University High School in Irvine will come to some good if the collection and disbursement of money for student activities come under tighter control. But the episode in mystery accounting--which had $55,000 earmarked for student activities unaccounted for--also said something important for all schools about relationships and trust between administrators and students.

The problem apparently surfaced when a substitute accounts clerk turned up “a sizable discrepancy� in a routine check of the accounts of the money raised by students for club activities. The district now blames an adviser and an accounts clerk who have left the district for the problem. Police say they have investigated and found no evidence of criminal activity, only sloppy bookkeeping.

But while the students have obviously worked hard to raise this money, it’s clear that they had little to say about the district’s solution to the problem.

School officials angered students by unilaterally taking 30% out of each club’s account, without knowing which accounts had mistakes and without consulting the students. The school news magazine, for one, made its dissatisfaction known. When it suddenly lacked the money to publish its usual 16-page paper of 8 1/2 by 11 inches, it put out a four-page, 3-by-4-inch volume.

The magazine’s suggestion that students should keep their money in a real bank made a useful point. Whether the money is banked or controlled in house by the administration, there is a case to be made for including the students more in the process of managing and accounting for the money.

If advisers and clerks can’t keep control, let the students have some practice managing this money. And it makes no sense to punish them by excluding them from the solutions when things go awry.

Maybe by giving students a say in ensuring better future accounting practices, University and other schools can impart valuable lessons in managing life’s daily affairs.