RuCo School Board to Discuss Booster Club Policies

Jul 17, 2016 at 05:28 pm by bryan


The Rutherford County School Board is having a Monday work session and Tuesday board meeting this week and some of the discussion will concern policies for booster clubs.

A group of concerned citizens has sent a press release outlining how the proposed policies could result in the disbanding of clubs, teams or bands. The group is concerned that moving finances of the booster clubs to school accounts would "strip the clubs of corporate donations and grant funding opportunities which require 501c3 status." They claim 95-to-98-percent of booster club budgets are made up of fundraising dollars.

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The group is hoping to persuade the school board to consider greater oversight through training and audits of the clubs rather than the dollars of those clubs going through school accounts.

The school board will again meet in work session Monday at 5pm and the board meeting is at 5pm Tuesday. The Rutherford County School board meets at the Rutherford County Board of Education offices, located at 2400 Southpark Drive.

PRESS RELEASE:

The Rutherford County School Board is holding an open meeting on Monday, July 18th, at 5 p.m. at 2400 Southpark Drive to discuss policies concerning Rutherford County booster clubs. They have proposed actions that would result in disbanding these clubs and we encourage anyone who has been positively affected by participating in a Rutherford County sport, team, band, or club to come and voice your opposition to these proposed changes.

An unintended result of the Rutherford County School Board's proposed action would force the closure of the largest booster clubs which are 501c3 non-profit corporations. Moving the finances of these clubs to the school accounts would remove charitable donations and distributions which are required for the tax-exempt status of these clubs. This would strip the clubs of corporate donations and grant fundraising opportunities which require 501c3 status.

Ninety-five to ninety-eight percent of their booster club budgets are composed of dollars raised by fundraising. The level of support the clubs could provide would be greatly diminished resulting in reduced success of the programs they support within Rutherford County. Please support us in our efforts to petition the school board for consideration of greater oversight through training and audits of the clubs rather than taking over the finances of the clubs which would force the 501c3's to vote to dissolve.

The School Board proposal to take over the finances would work for smaller non-501c3 clubs as they already go through school accounts and cannot fund raise at the same level as a 501c3. A compromise of taking over the small booster clubs and allowing the larger booster clubs to submit to audits would benefit all clubs through greater oversight.

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