KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
After a series of financial concerns were brought to the Hart district, officials are once again looking to remind parents about fundraising for school programs.
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Hart district officials are in the midst of auditing the Valencia High softball program’s books, after concerns were raised by parents and coaches in April.
From a previous story: Valencia High Softball Program Under Audit By Hart District After Parents’ Complaint
In response, in the following changes have been reported to KHTS AM-1220: the Valencia High softball program began requesting donations to go to Valencia ASB, as opposed to in the past, when checks were being written to Valencia Softball; and on May 3, the day after the audit was first reported, Valencia softball head coach Donna Lee moved $9,500 into the ASB account for the program.
There was no activity in the account between April 1 and the deposit earlier this month, according to records obtained by KHTS News. All sports programs have access to default ASB funds, according to the Valencia High official in charge of keeping said records. (KHTS News requested the documents from the William S. Hart Union High School District as part of public record; district officials in the process of redacting personal information from thousands of pages of financial pages before the documents are released.)
District board President Joe Messina said he could not discuss any details regarding the pending look into the books; however, there were several pieces of information parents should know about fundraising for any extracurricular program.
“My understanding of district policy is, they’re supposed to do an (ASB account or use a registered 501c3 nonprofit),” Messina said. “They can’t do a meld of the two.”
One of the challenges for the district, Messina said, is that legally speaking, if parents decide to go through a booster club or a private account, the district generally doesn’t have legal oversight to audit the books. If the program uses an ASB or 501c3 account, then district officials have better means to provide oversight.
Another challenge is that the district is generally only informed or brought into the process of account oversight for non-ASB or non-501c3 (the legal designation for registered nonprofits) after there’s been a problem noted — making the challenge of proper oversight much greater.
The recent Valencia High softball program concerns involved numerous claims on and off record about fundraising practices, which prompted a recent series of stories by KHTS News.
From a previous story: KHTS Obtains Valencia High Softball Team Complaint; Changes Reported
The complaint, obtained by KHTS, begins: “This serves as a formal complaint against Donna Lee, Greg Lee & Mike Yuddin (sic),” and goes on to lay out a series of allegations against the program’s operations.”
Donna Lee is the head coach of Valencia High’s varsity softball program. Her husband, Greg Lee, is the Hart District’s Director of Human Resources and Equity Services, Compliance Officer and Title IX Coordinator. Yudin is the owner and head strength coach of local gym Team Yudin.
The allegations surround two main issues: the structure of the Valencia softball booster club, and a pay-to-play allegation regarding organized team strength and conditioning workouts on campus through Yudin.
In addressing community concerns, and conversations with “upper management” in the district, Saugus High Principal Bill Bolde said at a recent staff meeting he was aware of what was being discussed, and used the recent events as an opportunity to remind parents about why it was important to go through the channels for fundraising for any program.
“In many cases, yes, what were trying to do is (encourage parents to donate through the recommended means),” Bolde said, “so that we can be completely transparent about the money that parents and business partners are generously giving to our programs. The end result is, we’d never want anyone to think we’re doing anything underhanded by nature.”
To that end, the outgoing principal, who’s retiring at the end of this year, said he was meeting with “all of our booster clubs, presidents and treasurers and anyone who handles money — to give them the tools to set up a 501c3 or a booster account,” on May 30.
For many Saugus High programs, the Centurion Foundation is a 501c3 that allows parents to give and requires certain disclosures, because it’s a registered nonprofit.
However, booster clubs and fundraisers that decide to go a different route are largely “autonomous,” Messina said.
“The money that the boosters clubs raise (even if it’s in an ASB or a 501c3), they can use it for whatever it’s designated for,” Messina said.
“It’s a matter of do parents want the district involved in oversight on the front end,” he added, “or once there’s a concern.”
All about the money.
No comment on Audit ? How is this possible ? It’s been 2 months since parents brought to VHS Admin attention
Off campus acct VHS Admin had no knowledge of & district made her close
How long was acct open ? Maybe Greg Lee can answer
K Matson ? Did she really sign all checks ? Nobody knows K Matson
Checks to Family members ?
No acct balances ever shared with parents or cash carry overs from season to season
Possible improper use of school Tax ID number
Zero oversight on spending
Numerous infractions but yet she is still Coaching ! Coach Snyder treated very different
HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE ? Where is the School Board or Law enforcement ? The District is dragging their feet simply because her husband works at the district office.
Thank You KHITS for not ignoring this & as you Can see by the number of views that the community is watching
Here’s the difference from this and Coach Snyder case; the district and person that investigated Coach Snyder was Gregg Lee (how ironic) and they basically swept it under the carpet. Nothing happened until the complaint submitter (who worked for the police dept) went to the local sheriffs dept because the district wasn’t doing anything quick enough. The complaint filer (past Valencia parent) requested an investigation for possible embezzlement of funds. It wasn’t until then that the coach was released pending their investigation, and it only took 3 days later for him to be formally charged and soon after was jailed. One of these parents in this case would need to do the same or this investigation by the district has the potential to be full of fluff and procrastination until it fizzles out.
WMS HART SCHOOL BOARD ???? The District personnel answers to you. Please don’t make parents go to law enforcement to get this handled.
Coach Snyder was dealt with in a very aggressive manner & Coach Lee is still coaching ? DOUBLE STANDARD
Can somebody please explain to me how Softball parents are allowing this ? Are they going to allow Greg Lee to influence the district Audit ?
Isn’t this a conflict of interest when Greg Lee is in charge of athletics in the district and his wife coaches softball? Why in the heck is the Hart District allowing this sleezy kind of behavior to go on and not take immediate action? I would line to know as a parent where all our money has gone?! This is extremely wrong and I want answers!
How long does an Audit take ? One Phone Call to K Matson & Coach Lee should be removed from the Softball field.
I was shocked to hear Softball parents discussing possible Forgery , Can anybody confirm that Coach Lee was not only signing her name on Checks but she was Also signing K Matson’s name as well ? Talk about deceiving Parents ? WOW
KHTS, why didn’t you accept the comment about Gregg Lee and the police conducting the investigation that ultimately led to coach Snyder being found guilty?? That I submitted as a comment?? You’re brushing things under the carpet like the district does with Gregg Lee. Shame on you guys. Email me back if I’m missing the finer details of why. Thanks.
I see almost the same thing at hart, for the basketball program. I don’t understand why they need to go office campus to have a conditioning training when they all they need at the school. it looks to me that we are just paying someone every weekend to for no reason. It also seems like everything that’s done for the team is done by “friend” of one of the coaches.
Hart girls program should be audited, we parents shovel out hundreds of dollars to our head coach there.
I’ve been reading all these comments and it appears that the district has massive corruption going on in the schools with the bilking of thousands of dollars from the parents for their children to play sports . Greg Lee sounds extrememely questionable in his lackluster approach to tackling the complaints. Parents need to wake up before their pockets are empty and take action by filing a complaint with the police department so that a thorough investigation into the softball program can be conducted. I am extremely disappointed in the hartdistrict for not being proactive and aggressive in handling this and for allowing this kind of questionable behavior to go on!