Fundraisers. The beast that has attached itself to the face of public education like the the creatures from Alien. You thought you were here to teach, but the beast leaves little behind when it's done. Then, just when you thought you were going to get some help, Predator shows up and make the job that much harder.
One of the teachers I work with is putting together Bingo Night so we can buy extras. You know, things like books. For seven years, the staff at the nearby Papa Johns graciously donated 25 pizzas for the event. It's not just a good tax write-off, it's good advertising. Keep in mind, we have over seven hundred students -- seven hundred families -- that see and hear about the contributions the local firms make to help out our schools. So how did Papa Johns hook us up this year? The first phone call was not returned. Nor was the second. Or the third, fourth or fifth. On the sixth, they kindly told us their answer: zero pizzas. Only after escalating the issue to the regional manager did they begrudgingly promise ten pizzas after offering five.
$3.3 million. That's how much the president and CEO, Nigel Travis, made last year. $63M. That was how much Papa Johns netted last year after sales of over one billion dollars.
We lined up a couple of other pizza places to make up the difference. One was regional, the other a local operation. Since Papa Johns apparently has enough business already, and the local pizzas are usually more flavorful, take the time next time you order pizza(s) to support your local pizza shops. It may even be your kids who benefit from benevolence of these small shops.