The Board of Education, in keeping with the philosophy of providing public school information freely and timely to the community, encourages the use of the District’s signs/marquees for the purposes of informing the community of school or school related activities, events and opportunities. The Board recognizes that the messages on signs/marquees must reflect and be consistent with the Board's mission, educational goals and promote the interests of students and their families. Only on-campus programs, events and activities of significant interest to the general student population will be posted on District signs/marquees. Additionally, such usage shall not interfere with the daily school student routine or any school sponsored student activity.

The use of District signs/marquees for school purposes, meetings, activities, events, operations and providing general information with direct impact on and affiliation with District/school programs has precedence over all others.

Applications/Process for Request

As a public school district, events will be displayed in the manner stated, with District events given first priority. On occasion, this may require that an event requested by another organization be removed to meet District needs.

Sign/marquee requests will be processed according to the classification level, with priority being given to organized leagues/activities. In some cases, this may result in the rescheduling of message requests made by classifications of lower priority.

Sign/marquee messages for distribution must be of a nature suitable for presentation in a public school, must be lawful, and must conform to all policies of the Board. Persons or groups, whose requests are determined to be illegal or inappropriate for presentation in public school buildings or District grounds, will be denied.

It may be necessary to cancel a request. This must be done by the same format as requests by the same signatory making the request.

To insure fairness, accuracy and consistency in the implementation of Board policy governing use of signs/marquees, the following categories have been established. These categories have been established to determine priority for handling requests and displaying messages for approved user groups.

K - 12 program activities are those that directly relate to regular, extra-curricular, or athletic K - 12 events. These include open houses, music performances, drama productions, athletic events, school clubs, intramural, parent orientation meetings, awards banquets, school-sponsored dances, etc.

Community education programs solely or jointly administrated by the Board will be granted second priority for District sign/marquee distribution. In addition, this classification includes, but is not limited to, school related support systems (MHSAA, MASB, CCRESA, etc.), booster organizations, and parent-teacher organizations, and District employee associations.

District student groups/groups organized to benefit students/government organizations, and resident non-profit community organizations come under two (2) definitions. Student groups and groups organized to benefit students are defined as groups that are interested in using District facilities for an activity with recreational, civic, educational, cultural, or charitable goals and whose activities are organized for the primary benefit of the students.

Government organizations are defined as units of local, city, and township government and their established committees. Such groups will be issued permits for space and facilities on a third priority basis. Examples of Classification 3 users include, but are not limited to, local scout organizations, community sports groups, and local, city, and township units of government and DeWitt Area Recreation Authority (DARA).

Resident non-profit community groups are defined as those District residents who are requesting use for their non-profit activity or organization. Non-profit groups must provide legal documentation (as defined by IRS code of regulations) or groups of individuals formed for charitable, civic, social, religious, recreational, or educational purposes.

Private resident use/community/recreational groups of District signs/marquees is prohibited.

Commercial users, defined as private, for profit businesses, vendors, or entrepreneurs, shall not be allowed use of District signs/marquees.

The administrative guidelines have been created to ensure that District signs/marquees are primarily used for our K - 12 education programs.