GEARY – Seeking to reduce confusion, redundancy and favoritism, the Geary Public Schools Board of Education discussed possible changes to its booster club policies during a regular board meeting at the Stegall-Long Field House on Monday, Aug. 2.
The board, along with new Geary Superintendent Sean Buchanan, discussed the possibility of sanctioning the clubs. Buchanan explained that the district currently has an “All-Sports” booster club and a “Takedown Club” that focuses on wrestling, but neither is sanctioned by the district.
An attendee from the community, who spoke at the beginning of the board meeting, also expressed interest in starting a new club to focus on basketball and cheerleading.
“Doing some checking with other superintendents on this issue, there’s more than one way you can handle this,” Buchanan said. “The law does not require booster clubs to be sanctioned by the district. Every legal professional I talk to, both with the Superintendents Association and the Principals Association, kind of said that if individuals are raising money on behalf of the school, and they are not sanctioned, you can put yourself in some strange situations as a district.”
Board member Afton Jameson expressed interest in a system that would divide all booster club money equally among all sports. “I want it to be a level playing field across every sport for every kid,” Jameson said, adding that she doesn’t want to create a situation where “we’re pitting sports against each other.”
She suggested that each sport receive its own club, but board member Cecil Harrall said there’s only so much community money to go around. “If we go breaking things up into individual sports, I think it’s going to create chaos. Someone’s going to get treated one way versus the other,” Harrall said. “And also we have to think, we have a population of 1,200. … They’re not going to be able to support everything.”
Jameson agreed, saying the school could perhaps sanction the all-sports club and then create separate accounts that receive equal money with every donation. Buchanan said some districts do split their donations that way.
“I like that option because I feel like it brings everybody together,” Jameson said.
Buchanan pointed out that splitting booster club money equally does not preclude Geary residents from donating to the cause or activity of their choice. All sports maintain activity funds, he said, that can be donated to directly and are used for things like providing meals to athletes. “Anyone who makes a donation to the school could say, ‘I want this in the wrestling account, or the tech ed account,’” he said.
But sanctioning a booster club would allow the district to maintain oversight of where the funds are going. It would also give the district say on the club’s fundraising rules and practices. In exchange, the club might be allowed to use the school’s name and logos.
School board president Jason Bernhardt said sanctioning “does not equal control.”
“The board is not wanting to take control of all these booster clubs,” Bernhardt said.
The school board did not take any action on Monday but agreed to move forward with examining and drafting new booster club policies.