A little info before the question. My wife is on our kids school booster club. We are a very small school, less than 500 total enrollment for K-12. The booster club used to be under the school finances but a few years ago they bought out of the school umbrella and just made the last payment, which in total was around 30k. We do have a successful athletic program with multiple state titles in football, golf, baseball, tennis, girls volleyball etc. Football is where the majority of money is made with auctions, concession sales etc. and now our Booster club has roughly 40k in the bank.
So the school admin which included the Headmaster and AD came to the boosters and asked if they could pay to refinish the floors for the gym (bball, vball); but the gym is also used for chapel and other non- athletic events. This is something that needs to be done every 7 years and the cost is 13k. Boosters were also asked to pay to build some sort of structure to try and eliminate foul balls from getting out of the baseball field cost for this is about 2k. Boosters were also asked to help or fully pay the salaries of our Athletic Trainer and Strength Coach; these positions are not full time and they are there for treatments and strength training stuff . Currently the boosters does not get a copy of the athletic budget, so they do not know where and how the athletic money is spent. Part of the reason for the school asking is enrolment dipped and there is less money for the school; enrollment did increase this coming school year, but the school won't see that increase in funds till late this year/early next year. So essentially the school knows the boosters has 40k and is asking them to pick up the tab for all these things, which would pretty much drain the 40k.
When discussing this with my wife last night I said IMO the salaries for trainer and coach should be a yes since the goal of the boosters is to try and set apart your school athletics by having people, coaches etc that set you apart from the other teams in your conference. As far as the floors and baseball stuff I said the floors should be a no since it is an expense that should be budgeted and the baseball thing is a capital expense that while the boosters should be involved in and help with any capital expense should be fundraised for separately. My opinion is anything that is a capital improvement should have a separate fundraiser that the boosters can work into their yearly goals. I told my wife that booster clubs main goal with money should be to help with coaches salaries in order to keep them at the school, pay for trips like going to state, going to otherwise not normal tournaments , games etc. and anything that is a construction project or capital expense should have separate fundraising with that capital expense as the only goal.
What are the booster club experts in the LR thoughts?
So the school admin which included the Headmaster and AD came to the boosters and asked if they could pay to refinish the floors for the gym (bball, vball); but the gym is also used for chapel and other non- athletic events. This is something that needs to be done every 7 years and the cost is 13k. Boosters were also asked to pay to build some sort of structure to try and eliminate foul balls from getting out of the baseball field cost for this is about 2k. Boosters were also asked to help or fully pay the salaries of our Athletic Trainer and Strength Coach; these positions are not full time and they are there for treatments and strength training stuff . Currently the boosters does not get a copy of the athletic budget, so they do not know where and how the athletic money is spent. Part of the reason for the school asking is enrolment dipped and there is less money for the school; enrollment did increase this coming school year, but the school won't see that increase in funds till late this year/early next year. So essentially the school knows the boosters has 40k and is asking them to pick up the tab for all these things, which would pretty much drain the 40k.
When discussing this with my wife last night I said IMO the salaries for trainer and coach should be a yes since the goal of the boosters is to try and set apart your school athletics by having people, coaches etc that set you apart from the other teams in your conference. As far as the floors and baseball stuff I said the floors should be a no since it is an expense that should be budgeted and the baseball thing is a capital expense that while the boosters should be involved in and help with any capital expense should be fundraised for separately. My opinion is anything that is a capital improvement should have a separate fundraiser that the boosters can work into their yearly goals. I told my wife that booster clubs main goal with money should be to help with coaches salaries in order to keep them at the school, pay for trips like going to state, going to otherwise not normal tournaments , games etc. and anything that is a construction project or capital expense should have separate fundraising with that capital expense as the only goal.
What are the booster club experts in the LR thoughts?
