Now we are going to take a look at Centreville Band. They were also referenced in the email from Brandynn and included in the email from Mr. Foster, Division Counsel. Receipts and contracts were requested, along with a student payment spreadsheet and accounting data showing income and expenses.
The Centreville Band Parents also signed the MOA, and by doing this agreed to run all Marching Band money through school accounts and have all Booster payments optional, and provide the school system with all information they wanted regarding marching band records and expenditures.
There was a $335 fee demanded by Melissa Hall, Band teacher at Centreville, which consisted of a $175 payment to Centreville High School, and $160 to be paid to the Wildcat Band Boosters. Her name was on the form as the contact person. TWICE. The whole thing was referred to as including marching supplemental, plus general band supplemental. There is no such thing as a "supplemental". You either have FCPS fees, or Booster donations. The school system, after four months of arguing, managed to extricate one little page out of these Boosters, who signed a contract to cooperate FULLY with the school system on records release for Marching Band expenses. Everybody was SO excited about the MOA.
The $160 collected from each student was apparently indeed applied to both General Band and Marching Band expenses. However, the school system says there aren't any receipts for the expenses, nor contracts for the supplemental instructors, all of which are supposed to be paid by the county, receive a tax statement, have background checks, etc. If so, the Wildcat Band Boosters (and the Centreville HS staff) are also in major violation of the MOA, multiple school regulations, state, and Federal laws.
The portion applied to General Band is also school activity funds, per Reg. 5810, in that it was money (a user fee) demanded by a teacher from students in order to take her class. This is also supposed to be public record. There aren't any supporting documents for that, either. There were due dates for both payments. These weren't donations, and you could have probably written off some of this on your taxes, but it is too late, unless you want to hash it out with the Officers, who aren't talking and apparently don't have any receipts anyway to figure it all out, and do an amended tax return.
So, parents, apparently your Booster officers are going to file their non-profit tax return without any supporting documentation on this money, have been issuing money to people helping out the school system and working with your children without contracts and adequate documentation and maybe under the table and probably no background checks, taking money from children and parents under the order of a school employee, and cannot prove how they spent it. They would never survive an audit. Is their accountant just going to take their word for it and put their name on the return? Do you do internal reviews? What are your internal reviewers going to say about this? What would your insurance company say if your officers could not provide one scrap of information on what they did with $15,000?????????????????????????????????? Do you even have insurance? Do you realize that if you don't do internal reviews or audits your policy is probably worthless?
If there is supporting documentation, the Booster officers are either lying to the school system (and they agreed to cooperate fully), or the school system is saying untrue things about the Centreville Wildcat Band Booster Officers.
There is no possible pleasant explanation.
Is this the kind of organization you want to give money to? Can't/won't provide receipts to justify expenditures and support their tax return and explain things to the insurance company if need be? I think you need to file a report with the Police Department because it sounds like you were swindled. The Financial Crimes Division phone number is 703-246-7800. This is also a group who refuses to hold up their end of the bargain in a signed agreement with a county executive. Just wonderful.
They can't even provide a record of who paid what and when.
Who is lying? Who took money and can't account for it? This is quite a soap opera.
None of this was my idea, so don't complain about me. I am just telling it like it is. No receipts, no contracts, no supporting documentation for $15,000 of school activity funds held by an agent of the school system handling school activity funds, demanded by a school employee.
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