“SCRIP” is simply another name for “Gift Certificates.” If you have ever used a gift card or gift certificate, then you have used SCRIP. Parents, friends, relatives, and teachers can purchase SCRIP directly from St. Joseph Academy. SCRIP is treated just like cash. SCRIP can be used for everyday items such as gasoline, groceries, clothing, or for things like travel, dining out, video rentals or home improvement. SCRIP can also be given as gifts. In most cases the cards sold to us are EXACTLY the same as cards you would purchase directly from retailers, airlines, restaurants, etc.
St. Joseph Academy makes money by purchasing these gift cards at a discount through Great Lakes Scrip. One of the great things about SCRIP is: 50% of the profit will remain in Family Accounts, known as the SHARE program. The remaining 50% goes directly into fundraising dollars for school. Your SHARE dollars will be put directly toward your child’s tuition for the following school year!
If a family happens to have a 12th grade student and no younger siblings they will get to make a choice from several options at the end of the year. First, if there are any unpaid balances remaining at school, the money will go toward that. If the family has no unpaid balance, they can choose between receiving a gift certificate for further purchases or making a tax-deductible donation to St. Joseph Academy! Faculty, staff and administration will be given a gift certificate for the purchase of SCRIP cards for their SHARE activity. Please note any Share Accounts with a value of less than $5.00 will automatically be donated to the school.
SCRIP cards are available for purchase three ways. First, you can purchase SCRIP “TO GO” directly from the office. We keep an inventory there for you to choose from. Remember that between 7:50-8:10 the office is extremely busy, and it would be helpful for you to avoid that time. Look for the colored “SCRIP TO GO” forms on the reception counter. The second way to purchase SCRIP is to turn an order form into the office anytime prior to Monday 8:30 AM*. You may download an order form from the link at the top of this page or they are available daily in the office. All orders will be ready by Friday to either pick up in the office, or to be sent home with your student. The third way to purchase SCRIP will be at certain sports activities, i.e. football, volleyball, soccer and basketball home games.
We also offer SCRIP Gift Certificates. These can be issued by us for any dollar amount. Gift certificates will enable the bearer to purchase a SCRIP card (or cards) of their choice!
All orders must be accompanied with a check or cash in the correct amount. If you send in an order form and have miscalculated, one of three things will occur: if you overpaid, you will be given a SCRIP gift certificate to redeem on any SCRIP purchase the following Monday. If you underpaid by $20.00 or less you will be sent an OOPS form telling how much you owe. If you underpaid by more than $20.00, your order form will be returned to you without being processed. Please check your order forms carefully. Most of the gift cards and certificates have no expiration, but as with any gift card, the companies reserve the right to deduct a small percentage after 1-2 years. We highly recommend you use the cards within one year. And like most gift cards, change is no longer given with the technological advancement of the magnetic strip. Plastic cards are swiped at the retailers and balances remain on the cards. Some companies issue paper certificates, and these places do give you back hard currency.
On the SCRIP order form, you will be asked to write your student’s name and family account number.** Each family will be assigned a number, and it will need to be put on each order, by you. Also, you must initial one of two options: SCRIP cards and certificates to be sent home, or picked up in the office yourself. Remember, some orders may have hundreds of dollars worth of gift cards. St. Joseph Academy cannot be responsible for these cards once they leave the office.
If you have any questions, please direction them to scrip@sjaweb.org. We are looking forward to another successful year of SCRIP sales! Thank you for your participation!
SCRIP/SHARE Coordinators
Laura Mouhalis and Donna Dingler
*Please note, there will be some Monday’s throughout the year that we will not be able to process orders due to holidays and shortened school weeks.
**Initial orders by new families only need complete names on the order form. Your family number will be given to you along with your SCRIP cards.