Principal Disbands Athletic Booster Club

Principal Gleen Lipman severed ties between Adolfo Camarillo High School and the athletic booster club.

Lipman claimed the organization was mired in debt and had mishandled money.

Former booster club president Dave Benson alleges Lipman and school athletic director Mike Smith were motivated by a desire to control how club funds were spent.

“Rather than allow the booster club the autonomy to raise funds and put it into projects like it had been done in the past, they wanted to control those funds that were raised and use them for things…” said Benson to The Acorn.

Benson agrees that the club had a debt level of about $30,000. School figures claim that actual figure is much higher.

School officials claim the booster club owes about $26,000 to Elite Performance Factory, a Westlake Village training facility used by the high school football team. Benson says the separation between the club and the school prevents him from raising funds to meet this debt.

An undisclosed sum is owed to the Spanish Hills Country Club for hosting a casino night fundraiser. The event was projected to raise $20,000 but lost approximately $1,500.

The club was founded in the early 1980′s and hosts a number of fundraisers to subsidize the cost of 22th high school sports teams.
It normally gives between $15,000 and $20,000 to the athletic program. Last year it gave about $6,000.

Since the club is a nonprofit organization and retains its 501c3 status, the school cannot disband its board of directors, audit its finances, or control how its money is spent. The separation does prevent the organization from raising money on behalf of the school or using school facilities.