School district audit finds fumbling on fund rules in Arizona

An audit launched during an investigation into allegations against former head football coach Kent Holland alleges Buena High School coaches have been mishandling money related to student fundraising for more than a decade.
On Tuesday, the school board decided in a 4-1 vote that the Colt Booster Club should transfer $40,000 back to the district to be distributed into designated student accounts.
An audit of the club’s disbursements over the past two years found $46,000 to $58,000 was spent in a way that was not allowable because it did not have a direct benefit to students, Superintendent Brett Agenbroad said. The misused funds combined with the club’s current account balances totaled $80,000 to $90,000, but the administration recommended the club transfer the district a settlement of half of the total funds in question.

After realizing the scope of the problem at the high school, the district performed an audit of all district-
affiliated parent-teacher student organizations, booster organizations and clubs. It found organizations not related to Buena athletics were handling their money properly.
Agenbroad said audit findings include:

• The Colt Booster Club was acting as an unauthorized ad hoc bank instead of funds being deposited in a designated district account.

• The club was receiving and disbursing student funds without apparent knowledge of or regard for district policy or Uniform System of Financial Records requirements.

• A long history of Buena High School athletic programs circumventing district policy.

• An established pattern that includes high school coaches, the athletic director and a high school business official being complicit in mishandling of funds.

The administrators primarily responsible for allowing the mismanagement are already gone, Agenbroad said. He later specified he was referring to former Buena Principal Tad Bloss and administrators before him who might have established or allowed the practices.

Agenbroad believes the coaches and booster club were merely following the lead of district staff, he said. Certain activities of staff that were potentially fraudulent were referred to the Sierra Vista Police Department and eventually came to the attention of the county attorney’s officer, as well as the county auditor. The county offices elected not to pursue any charges, citing low staffing and budgetary restrictions as part of their consideration.

The lack of direct punishment is why board member Deb Scott chose not to vote for the $40,000 settlement.

“I just have a problem with that much money being misappropriated, I’m not comfortable with it,” Scott said after Tuesday’s school board meeting. She believes district staff and booster club members should have been held accountable to a greater degree.



“For this to have gone on this long is absolutely a sin,” Scott said during her closing remarks at the meeting.



Former Buena Booster Club Treasurer Thomas Ransford admitted that coaches deposited money with the club directly, though the club did not ask where that money had come from.



“Of course we knew that some of the money was raised by students. We were unaware of that policy or the rules at that time,” Ransford said. When he started helping with the club, it was run by a single individual and no one advised club members they were doing anything wrong until recently, he said. The club then stopped accepting money from the coaches directly.



Ransford asserts that student money was never spent inappropriately and the club accounted for every penny. He mentioned that coaches were spending much of the money on clinics for other youths, which helped further the overall programs at Buena.



Ransford believes the $40,000 settlement to be inaccurate and highly improper, he said. He resigned after receiving a letter from the district demanding $60,000 be deposited into the district’s account. He believes that would be illegal.



“I would be violating my fiduciary duties by giving money that was not mine to another party without the request of the individuals that deposited with me,” Ransford said.



Bonnie Peterson, a member of the Booster Club, wanted to know who did not do their job in the first place in regard to making sure coaches, volunteers and everybody involved understood the policies.



“Who didn’t catch it at the beginning?” Peterson asked.



The district has implemented a re-education program at the high school to make sure the policies are understood and followed, Agenbroad said. “It is difficult to comprehend how with training, the receipt of a handbook, the signature saying, ‘My sponsorship and job is on the line,’ that things can become as fouled-up as they did.”



The Holland matter



The majority of the allegations made specifically against Holland, which resulted in his resignation as head football coach, were apparently unfounded.



“On or about June 22, I received five statements from recently resigned Buena assistant football coaches. In these statements were allegations of irregularities in the high school football program, and they implicated then- head coach Kent Holland as the cause of these irregularities,” Agenbroad said. “The allegations ranged from communication failure, student endangerment, vandalism, and the embezzlement and misuse of student funds.”



The district had a



third-party auditor conduct an investigation, which resulted in few noteworthy findings, Agenbroad said. The one that was significant was his handling of student activity funds, which was not in line with policy but was found to be no different than how any other coach at Buena handled them. The auditor recommended and the district decided to conduct its own audit of its clubs and organizations because the matter fell outside of the scope of the Holland investigation.



“He was exonerated of all allegations short of minor infractions regarding poor communication and lack of experience,” Agenbroad said. During the investigation, Holland was asked if he would consider the best interest of the football program and resign because the outcome of the student funding issue could have impacted his ability to finish the season as coach. Holland resigned this year less than two weeks before the start of official practice for the football season.