WESTMORELAND, Tenn. (WKRN) — Sumner County’s Commission has decided to forgive booster club debt for one rural school.
The decision comes after it was discovered a handful of Sumner County schools had accumulated over $1 million of athletic club debt, which were built up over many years and used on different facilities or athletic upgrades, like fieldhouses.
Despite the vote, many questions remain for residents and county officials alike.
“I had a lot of people approach me and tell me, ‘do not vote for this at all,’” said Sumner County Commissioner Don Schmit, who was one of eight commissioners to vote against paying off the debt. “Regardless of the circumstances, this is what [residents] would tell me: we should not be bailing out schools. Now you’ve just opened up Pandora’s Box.”
The debt —which amounts to more than $300,000 — can only be paid off by the county itself. Schmit believes more time should have been taken to vet the situation before a decision was made.
“I just felt like, look, let the Budget Committee do their thing,” said Schmit. “So this way we can get all the questions answered. Now, I feel like, and hopefully I’m wrong, but I feel like now we’re having to backtrack. We just walked in there with very little information, in my opinion.”
For now, it’s only Westmoreland High School that will have their debt forgiven. The three other Sumner County high schools will significant debt: Hendersonville, Beech, and Station Camp —will have to wait.
The school board member who created this resolution told News 2 he’s happy to see things move forward.
“Very excited for the community of Westmoreland, especially Westmoreland High School, those families that had to be a part of that loan. That’s a relief that they needed,” said Wade Evans.
Evans, and others within the school district, hope the remaining debts will be sorted out by the county in the near future. He harped on officials having good, healthy conservations focused on the “bigger picture.” In this case, he said it’s time to focus on ways to build athletic facilities in a more responsible way.
But what about those schools that don’t have any booster debt? For example, Gallatin High School. Is forgiving these debts fair to them?
“I would argue that some of it, all of it, should not have happened. But it did, and we need to recognize as a county and as a school board that we need to start taking care of these, really, the parents who are helping run [booster clubs],” Evans answered.
Evans said any future athletic facility must now be approved by the school board first; booster clubs cannot initiate large-scale projects on their own accord anymore, according to him.
Sumner County’s Budget Committee will likely discuss this topic again in May, which is when next year’s school budget begins to be finalized.
