[Press Release] “ONE OF THE HOTTEST EMERGING DC TECH COMPANIES” UNVEILS NEW NAME, LOOK, AND LOGO

Payment Partner, Inc.’s flagship offering Pay4SchoolStuffOnline is now Pay4SchoolStuff.com

FALLS CHURCH, VA September 16, 2013 - In addition to changing the name and logo, the newly renamed Pay4SchoolStuff website is now even easier to use and navigate. The revamped website displays several new features, including a streamlined new account set up, more appealing and intuitive landing page, and improved access to online support and social media links.

Pay4SchoolStuff offers the only comprehensive payment and management platform on the market that allows an organization to customize one payment menu for multiple school groups; eliminate all paper forms and registrations via a form creator; eliminate the need for postage; offer no-cost items to collect needed information in a multi- functional database; e-mail any account holders or create a directory in seconds; and take advantage of date, price and inventory controls.

Pay4SchoolStuff is currently used by over 150,000 parents nationwide.

About Payment Partners, Inc.

In order to address a glaring need for an easy to use, comprehensive, online payment solution for members (i.e., parents) of community organizations and after decades of submitting to the inefficiencies of paying for school fees by check for their combined six children, Jay Bass, President, and Don Segal, Chief Operating Officer, realized it was time for a change and formed Payment Partners, Inc. (PPI) in the fall of 2008.

From the outset, PPI’s mission is to develop innovative, web-based Payment Partnerships tm- - with full featured, customizable platforms--as solutions for leaders of community groups to better manage their information and payment needs.

The establishment of Pay4SchoolStuff, launched in the 2009-10 school year, is envisioned as a way of freeing school staff to teach, letting children learn instead of being fee messengers, and offering parents the convenience and efficiency of an organized, secure, online payment solution, available from their school’s website.

For additional Information, contact:

Payment Partners, Inc.
1069 W. Broad St. #756
Falls Church, VA. 22046 info@paymentpartnersinc.com 877-397-2937 

Post by Pay4schoolstuff.com.

Check out our NEW LOOK for the 2013-2014 school year!

Welcome back to school for the 2013-2014 school year!

We have some exciting updates at Pay4SchoolStuff, and we would love for you to check them out on our newly-designed website. If you have any questions or would like to sign up to use the Pay4SchoolStuff service, it's never too late to register.

Click on the image below to read our latest newsletter (opens in new window). 

Op-Ed Response: Ex-Fairfax, VA School Official Charged in Theft

I was disappointed to read of the theft of school funds by an official at Thomas Jefferson High School in Fairfax County (Washington Post Metro Section, March 6, 2010).  In addition to the obvious question of why someone in a position of trust would do such a thing - which was fully addressed in the article - you left unanswered the question of why, in this age of electronic-everything,  schools are still collecting cash and checks like they have been since the days of the abacus?  I was also left wondering how Ms. Litwin was able to get away with this for two years without recognition by the school.

As a recently empty-nested parent of three Montgomery County Public School children, my wife and I have written checks for many years for everything from AP tests, to trips to the Zoo.   Using our children as "fee messengers" had never been a good strategy, as attested by the innumerable lost checks and forms mysteriously "eaten by the dog."  Writing checks in this day and age is an archaic process and a time-consuming burden on parents.  Collection of these checks (and related forms) by school administrators and affiliated organizations such as PTSAs and booster clubs, is labor-intensive and often is fraught with confusion and lack of coordination.  Clearly, based on this story and others that have (and have not yet) appeared, there is abundant opportunity for fraud, theft, and mismanagement.  Recent estimates for PTA fundraising alone indicate that over $4B changes hands in just elementary schools in the U.S. Coupled with fees for field trips, tests, membership dues, tickets, sport apparel, and other items, industry experts estimate that between $10-12B changes hands annually within the U.S. school system.    Schools such as Thomas Jefferson, which offers a full array of extra-curricular activities, probably processes over $1.5M in cash and checks annually.  That is a tremendous amount of money to be handled in such a cavalier and archaic manner.

Online payment processing systems for schools have been developed to provide a safe and convenient tool for parents to pay for school items.   These systems offer a secure environment for paying, reporting, and administering school payments.  My partner and I, also a parent of three public school children, recognized this need and recently developed an online payment system specifically for schools, Pay4SchoolStuff.com.  To date, many local PTSAs and booster clubs have subscribed with great enthusiasm.  

Why haven't these systems been more widely adopted?  Why are schools and school systems themselves so reluctant to change?  How many more cases of theft will we read about before the benefits of online payment become obvious to everyone? 

Written by Jay Bass, Ed.D., President 

Payment Partners, Inc.