At a meeting with the PTA Council on 2/16/10 the Superintendent made several statements that may be (in his words) false and misleading.

At the meeting with the Stow-Munroe Falls Parent Teacher Association, the Superintendent stated, “put a gun to my head….(there is) no levy committee….. the levy committee treasurer files a report”.

Mr. Superintendent: If there is no levy committee, who is the group that filed allegations with the Ohio Election Commission against the Stow Citizens for Responsible Government?

Why did the non-existent levy committee sponsor (under cover of the PTA Council) a fundraiser golf outing?

Why did the PTA council issue a check for a donation of $8,072.67 to a non-existent levy committee?

Why does the non-existent levy committee have a treasurer and co-chairpersons?

Your statement at the meeting that they “..(did) not (do) something sneaky”, surely explains why the levy committee’s golf fundraiser was disguised as a function of the PTA Council. Are the businesses and individuals who purchased tickets and sponsored holes aware they were being snookered?

Would you have known that the contribution amount sent to the levy committee by the PTA Council was illegal (according to their by-laws) if the SCRG had not intervened?

The PTA Council representative at the meeting stated, (there has been) “a lot of communication with the state (Ohio PTA). Everything has been done legally and above board.”

It’s amazing what a little public exposure can do.

We really don’t care if the PTA Council sent funds to the levy committee.  We support the levy committee in their arduous duties.  We know that without levies school systems could not function.  We only care that the district be run corrrectly and legally.

No indication was given as to what the money would be used for. The PTA is an honored organization and well known for their service to the schools and the students. A golf outing to be sponsored by the PTA was announced a little later. Only problem was, nobody informed the membership of the PTA. Very few members of the PTA Council were informed. Indeed, it would seem that nobody in the PTA was aware that they were sponsoring a golf outing in June to “support the Stow-Munroe Falls Schools”. There was no mention of the event or the sponsorship in the PTA’s minutes. No mention was made indicating what the money would be used for. After the June date was rained out, the outing was re-scheduled for August 14th. Click here to see the poster.

The PTA Council’s Treasurer’s Report for September 15, 2009 indicates that the Council took in $9,894.67 from the generous golfers. In the same report, the money, on September 4th was listed as an “expense” and sent somewhere. Some of the money was used to pay the bills for the golf outing at Fox Den golf course. A total of $8,072.67 was sent to oblivion. Then the heat got turned up.

The money was sent to the Stow-Munroe Falls Levy Committee! The PTA Council, in violation of their own by-laws, had just made a major donation to a Political Action Committee (PAC). The membership did not vote to hold a golf outing. The membership did not vote to disperse the money from the golf outing. And the membership certainly did not vote to put their organization in jeopardy with the Internal Revenue Service and possibly damage their tax-exempt status. Certainly, if anything was being done against the by-laws or the law, the membership of the council would have known (or should have known) to put a stop to it.

In their required 2009 financial report to the Summit County Board of Elections, the levy committee reported the amount of $8,072.67 was donated by the Stow Council PTA.

A complaint was filed with the PTA District 13 Advisor by the Stow Citizens for Responsible Government on December 3, 2009. Click here to listen to the resulting meeting.

In January, when the report to the Board of Elections became public record, an addendum had been added stipulating that the levy committee was returning the money to the PTA Council because the amount exceeded their permitted 5% of their budget.

We have questions. Questions for which we will probably never get an answer.

Why would the Superintendent ask the PTA Council to violate their own rules?

Why would the levy committee treasurer, a Certified Public Accountant, not question a large donation from a small group that normally funds only student related programs?

Would the PTA Council have been in violation of their tax exempt status if the SCRG had not intervened?

Why was the PTA Council reluctant to discuss this? Could it be that they had no information available to them?

Why was it necessary to involve the school district’s attorneys to rectify this situation?

Why did so few people in the PTA Council know of this whole event?

What will the PTA Council do with all this money?

Why did a School Board member lend his endorsement to a possibly shady deal?

Why was it necessary this year (2009) to disguise the golf outing as a PTA Council event , “for the schools”, instead of a levy committee function with virtually all the same contact people as was done in 2008 and before?

BUT MOST OF ALL, WE’D LIKE TO KNOW,

Who’s paying the legal fees for the PTA Council and the levy committee? The taxpayers?