District 518 credit card policy gets clarification

Talk about it

WORTHINGTON — District 518’s preliminary credit card policy will include a provision for disciplinary action in case of misuse, decided the District 518 Board of Education’s Operations Committee Tuesday.

“(We should) leave the door open for disciplinary actions,” said board member Brad Shaffer. “I certainly wouldn’t tie that to any particular actions (however).”

The original draft of the credit card policy noted only that misuse “may result in revocation of … Purchase Card privileges” and that the holder would then need to pay the district or vendor for any inappropriate purchases.

The policy defines “misuse” as using a credit card for personal purchases and unauthorized items, allowing someone other than the cardholder to make a purchase or record-keeping in a fraudulent manner.

Unacceptable purchases include personal items, alcohol, tobacco, lottery tickets, cash advances or gift certificates.

Appropriate purchases include fuel, approved supplies, conference and seminar registration or expenses, books, craft supplies, instructional games or toys and hardware.

Credit cards are limited to administrators only — principals, district superintendent, director of special programs, director of community education and director of management services.

Superintendent John Land-gaard has the only district credit card at this time. Since businesses are increasingly requiring credit cards for reservations or registrations, the Operations Committee decided to create a policy allowing the district to have more cards.

Adding additional cards will also make expense tracking easier, because expenses would already be divided between buildings and programs.

In other business, the committee:

* Will investigate creation of a levy to pay its $20,000 commitment to its hockey program.

* Discussed decreasing the number of entrances to the high school for security reasons.

Tags: district 518, news, worthington, operations, committee, credit, card, policy