LIBERTY SCHOOLS Board approves booster-group rules

New policies allow the superintendent to set guidelines for the operation of booster groups.
LIBERTY -- The Liberty Board of Education has unanimously approved new policies governing booster groups, over the objections of the groups' leaders.
Under the policies approved at a meeting Tuesday night, the treasurers of outside groups such as the PTA will have to be bonded if the group's annual revenue exceeds $5,000.
Booster organizations already were required to pay the district $75 a year for liability insurance. Bonding costs about $100, said Sandra Webber, the president of the Liberty Schools PTA.
She said booster organizations had proposed that bonding not be required unless revenues exceeded $15,000.
"If a smaller group raises $5,000, most of that money has been spent on something the kids need but the school district can't provide," she said.
Guidelines
The policy also gives the school superintendent the right to set guidelines for how the groups operate.
"This is an attempt to coordinate everything and make sure everyone is on the same page," said Larry Prince, school district superintendent.
When the policy was being worked out, booster organizations requested that provisions be added for the superintendent to notify the organizations to discuss guideline changes before they are put into effect.
There is no provision for this under the policy the board passed.
"We feel the superintendent still has a right to change the administrative guidelines," Webber said. "All that we asked was that before the guidelines were changed, the boosters be made aware of the changes and be able to come to some sort of agreement about them," she said.