I am a concerned parent with two children attending El Rincon elementary school in Culver City, CA, where the APEX Leadership Company (a for profit franchise corporation) conducts annual fundraising events. While we appreciate the intent behind fundraising to support our school's needs, it is imperative that these activities prioritize transparency, accountability, and the safety of our students. 

Our family's main concerns are around:

• APEX Leadership Company employees putting undue pressure on impressionable young public school students to support their corporate interests as well as shaming students by calling specific attention to individual students based on their families’ particular ability or inability to give funds. 
• APEX Leadership Company employees holding themselves out to impressionable young public school students as educators (which they are not) and then modeling inappropriate behaviors.
• Lack of transparency by El Rincon School Administration/PTA to the broader school community on how much total money is collected from our public school community through APEX events and what percentage of that money is retained by our school versus paid to APEX. 

We call for the following clear safeguards around any future fundraising events held on the El Rincon campus involving Apex Leadership Company:

1. Neither APEX representatives nor school staff should be permitted to pass out individual prizes to nor announce recipients of individual prizes to students in their classrooms based on the amount of monetary donations/pledges their families have committed.
   
   
2. Neither APEX representatives nor school staff should be permitted to announce student names or display a list of student names in the classrooms (or anywhere else on campus) to identify who’s family has donated/pledged through APEX and whose family has not (or any other distinctions in amounts donated/pledged by different families).
   
   
3. Classroom-wide rewards for meeting APEX fundraising goals should not involve any behaviors that would be considered shaming/bullying in another context (i.e., throwing a pie in someone’s face or tying an APEX representative to a basketball pole).
   
   
4. The El Rincon school administration/PTA should advertise gross donations/pledges collected through APEX fundraising events alongside net donations/pledges retained by the school, including in verbal announcements, school Facebook posts, Rocket Review communications and any other communications with the school community about APEX (through Parent Square or otherwise). Families in a public school setting have a right to be clearly informed exactly how much of their donations through APEX go to the school and how much goes to APEX.

By signing this petition, you will help urge school officials to put in place reasonable safeguards that protect student well-being and uphold ethical standards in public school fundraising.

Thank you for your support!