WAPPINGERS SCHOOL DISTRICT—With help from Cablevision, their Congressman, and a celebrity in the financial world, Roy C. Ketcham High School students last Friday kicked off an effort to help their peers become literate…not in the three Rs but in the big M: money.

On hand for the event were students from the school’s financial math course, members of the Ketcham chapter of Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA), Wappingers school officials, Congressman John Hall (D, 19), representatives of Cablevision and, by telephone, Carmen Wong Ulrich, host of CNBC’s On the Money.

The gathering was the beginning of a year of activities that will help students understand basic financial skills in the hopes that they’ll start to handle their money effectively now and thus build a bright future for themselves financially. The financial math class, taught by Karen Noye, presented a video they’d created that provided information about everything from money market accounts and mutual funds to commodities and credit cards.

Approximately 200 students take the financial math class and Noye said the “biggest eye-opener” for them is in the area of mortgages, particularly when they discover how much more than the amount of a loan they actually will pay in interest.

“They’re floored,” Noye said.

In the class, Noye said she “really targets money management in ways that make sense.”

In the coming year, students will be exposed to financial literacy issues in a variety of ways. A bulletin board in the school’s main hall will contain information about the topic, there will be guest speakers, and one day of every week will be designated financial literacy day.

And on a tangible note, students will learn the importance of saving for an important purchase through the newly established “prom club.” Like a Christmas club their parents might once have used, students will be able to set aside money throughout the year toward expenses for spring proms. DECA will pay interest on the kids’ savings using money from its school store operation and a concession stand it runs.

DECA members Matt Egan and Melanie Noye will compile a 30-page report on the project, documenting their activities, and give a 15-minute presentation on the subject at the state DECA competition next March.

The financial literacy activities being planned are in keeping with the theme repeated throughout Friday’s event, namely that kids often don’t realize when they’re young how important money is to their future.

Town of Wappinger Supervisor Chris Colsey, whose daughter attends Ketcham, tried to give the students an example of the importance of learning money skills now by talking about his father. A former roofer, the elder Colsey was “not trained in how to use money at all” and often spent his whole paycheck each week, saving nothing for the future. As a result, he now has only Social Security to rely on at age 70, Colsey said. He added that, by learning financial management, Ketcham’s students have “stepped ahead of 75 percent of Americans.”

Congressman Hall agreed.

“You’re studying something I was never taught,” he said. “In my family, we didn’t talk about money. It was a different era. The earlier in your life you know these things, the better off you’ll be.”

In addition to those in attendance at Ketcham, students got advice through a telephone conversation with Carmen Wong Ulrich.

“It’s always good to bring in some start power kids can relate to,” said Adam Falk, Vice-President for Government Affairs for Cablevision.

Ulrich said that, foremost, she wanted the students to “understand the power money has in their lives.

“No matter how much you make, how you manage it will affect your life,” she said.

Ulrich advised the teens to beware of aggressive credit card marketing, seek subsidized federal loans for college, and get experience in the workforce prior to getting a master’s degree.

She also had a message for parents, namely that they “need to do a service to their kids to make them responsible” for at least some financial decisions.

“There’s nothing wrong with giving kids the responsibility of paying bills,” she said. “It think you handicap your kids if you don’t.”

Ulrich fielded questions from students and even offered her e-mail address and urged them to contact her with any other queries they had.

“The earlier you learn about money, the better off you’ll be,” she said.

The other adults on hand concurred.

Principal Sherrill Murray Lazarus called the money lessons a “combination of the easiest and most important information you’ll get in your high school careers” and said she was pleased to the students so attentive to what was being said.

Colsey, meanwhile, encouraged the students not to just let the information sit in their brains.

“Like any tool in a workshop, if it sits on the shelf it gets rusty,” he said of financial management skills. “You need to work a plan starting today.”