In a special meeting of the Newton Municipal School Board last Thursday night the school board met with band and athletic boosters for an informal inquiry into how the booster clubs are conducting business.
School board president Arthur Nelson opened the meeting by explaining to members from both clubs that the board was conducting the meeting to simply have a record in the event the State Auditor’s office had questions regarding the relationship between the booster clubs and the school district.
“Usually, the school district stays out of booster clubs’ affairs,” board president Arthur Nelson said. “Our school board takes advisement from the Mississippi School Board Association, and one thing that we found out in one of the recent trainings was that several districts -in this year alone 8 districts - have gotten in trouble with the way that money has being handled. Personnel has actually been let go in some districts.”
The boosters were asked by school board attorney Brian Mayo asked about some basic information about the clubs’ 5013c status, their tax id numbers, the election of officers, a written set of by-laws and a record of minutes for each meeting. He also asked questions about financial reports and records for the collecting and depositing of money.
Newton Band Booster spokesperson Eva McDonald and Athletic Director Crandall Porter provided most of the information that Mayo asked for, but as to some issues such as 5013c status neither could say if documentation was available. In nearly all other questions both said they had the required information.
McDonald took issue with some of the questioning as she reminded the board that several years earlier the band boosters had been advised they were not part of the athletic program and the organization had renamed itself Newton Band Boosters. Mayo explained that answering the questions helped establish that the school district and the clubs were maintaining separate corporate identities.
“We’re trying to do some things a little different when it comes to our booster clubs,” Nelson said. “We just want to make sure that the booster clubs are handling things the way that the state recommends it be handled. Although, the board doesn’t have anything to do financially with the operation of the booster club, you are still raising money in the name of the school.”
Mayo added that because the clubs were raising money and donating to the school district, the school district would be accountable to the state auditor’s office for knowing the answers to the questions he posed to the clubs.
Both Porter and McDonald confirmed that the clubs did conduct annual elections and maintained a set of by-laws. They also affirmed that no employees of the school district were also officers in the clubs, something that has previously been flagged by the auditor’s office.
Maintaining a separate corporate identity from the school system.
McDonald questioned why the clubs were being questioned by the school board if they were not part of the school district.
“The community is not under Newton Municipal School district,” Eva McDonald. “We are just a community organization to help band.”
“The reason we are bringing this up is because while y’all are separate entities, this money is being raised in the name of Newton Municipal School District, and it’s being used for the benefit of programs at the school district,” Mayo said. “We have to authorize those expenditures and receipt in that money when you donate it. That’s why we have to have that interest as well.”
Ultimately donations from the club to the school require accountability to the state auditor’s office which could mean the school district could be liable for the accounting practices of the clubs.
“We want each booster club to continue to do what they are doing because they are a help to us,” board member Lavera Chapman. “We just want you to share with us what you’re doing so we do not get into trouble with the state.”
Board member Jhadakka Leverette also emphasized the board’s appreciation for what the clubs did and advised the booster club members that many school districts had opted to disband the clubs to avoid trouble with the auditor’s office.
“We’re not trying to do that,” Leverette said. “We know that those children absolutely need boosters, so before we took that route, we wanted to do this.”
McDonald asked if the boosters would be able to keep everything in their own separate accounts and account for how the money is being spent.
Multiple board members and Mayo assured McDonald that the board wanted separate accounts or the money.
“What the board is going to want to know at the end of the day, possibly twice a year is a report outlining what money you have raised and what you are spending it on,” Mayo said. He added that it would be helpful if the clubs could present a first report to the board in January.
“We’ve always been told we have never been a part of the Mississippi High School Athletic Association,” McDonald said. “That’s why we came in as we did as a community group. My thing is now to re-organize, which is what is about to happen, after the next game we are going to come out of it and disorganize because we are going to get out of it.”
McDonald said this meeting was not the reason for this disbanding but the lack of support and negative feedback was the motivation for herself and several members to resign. “As a citizen of Newton, I will always stand for Newton,” she said. “I will always work for Newton. I will always do what I’ve got to do, but it’s time for somebody else to step up to the plate and see what it is to work.”
