Schools may limit gifts to teachers

Apples are out. Nobody gives the teacher an apple anymore. As the holidays approach, students and their parents do, however, want to show that they appreciate their teachers.

Parents are more likely to shower gift cards, fancy candy baskets, and even cash on school staff. That generosity is being curbed in some districts.

Hopkinton's School Committee is considering capping the amount a teacher may receive from a parent at $50 per gift, with an annual limit of $100.

If the committee adopts the policy at its meeting next Thursday, Hopkinton will join the ranks of other western suburbs that have placed limits on gifts. They include Berlin, Boylston, Needham, Newton, Sudbury, Wayland, Westborough, and Weston.

Rebecca Robak, chairwoman of the Hopkinton School Committee, said the policy is in response to a recent state Ethics Commission ruling that clarified state law barring gifts of "substantial value" to public employees. The commission decided that "substantial" is $50 or more.

Hopkinton's policy would place no ceiling on the total amount given by a group, which is how many parents have been offering gifts. A designated parent collects cash -- the individual contribution is up to the parent -- and the gift is accompanied by a card with each parent's name.

"It kind of evens it out for all students," said Robak, who has three children in school and contributes to group gifts for teachers. "You don't feel obligated to give a certain amount."

Parent Irene Hendry has helped organize those class collections in December and June. Sometimes a teacher will open an envelope with a $100 or a $200 check inside.

"Teachers don't make very much money," and they tend to spend their own money on their students and classroom supplies, Hendry said. But she said she understood why the schools were considering the policy.

"There are parents who have enough money to go overboard," she said. "Everyone gives what they want, when they want."

Assistant Superintendent Mary Colombo said: "The absolutely safe route is to not have gifts given at all -- period. But our School Committee chose to not go in that direction. We did not want to discourage the generosity of our families."

The Hopkinton draft policy will be posted on the School Committee website, www.hopkinton.k12.ma.us/schoolcommittee.

Parent Santas were generous to a fault in Wayland about four years ago, according to Superintendent Gary Burton.

"Room mothers were collecting cash," Burton said. "We felt gift-giving was getting out of hand."

Wayland enacted limits based on the state conflict-of-interest law. It encourages donations to school support organizations such as the PTO and boosters, which may accept unlimited donations.

Burton said teachers treasure letters of appreciation. "People do not have to feel obligated to give a teacher a gift at any time of the school year," he said.

Weston not only frowns on gifts to teachers, it bans all formal exchanges of gifts among students in the classroom.

School "is not the place for that kind of thing," said Assistant Superintendent Cheryl Maloney. Sudbury officials are of the same mind, informing parents at the start of the year that they should not send children to school with gifts for teachers or classmates.

"If gifts are received, they should be opened and acknowledged in such a way that the entire class will not become involved," Sudbury's policy states.

Despite a similar rule in Westborough, some parents lavished gifts on coaches last year.

"We had to send a reminder out, because our parents are so generous," said Superintendent Anne Towle.

The Westborough School Committee 15 years ago officially began discouraging gifts, encouraging students and parents instead to write letters to staff members.

In Newton, teachers are not allowed to accept any presents. Needham also tries to dissuade gifts for teachers.

And in the Berlin-Boylston Regional District, a policy about employees accepting gifts, on the books since 1985, warns that gifts may be "subjected to misinterpretation" and the subject "of embarrassment" for the district.

When children are in charge of presents for their teachers, money is sometimes less of an issue. They show their appreciation in more unusual ways -- sometimes bringing a smile, or a cringe, to a teacher's face.

Hudson High School teacher Mike Nanartowich recalled one colleague who gladly accepted one holiday gift from a student, a calendar, then looked closer and noticed bikini-clad models on its pages. It was the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Calendar.

One Hudson elementary school teacher was proudly handed a McDonald's Happy Meal, including the prize, Nanartowich said.

And another gift apparently wound up with the wrong recipient. An English teacher opened a package to find a novelty tie. It was decorated with chemical equations.

Globe correspondent Melissa Beecher contributed to this story.