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Pay for Play in High School.

Dad04Dad045,000+ posts
Not to throw stones but this is outragous. HAs this happened before that you know of, or am I just naive?

Boca High coach reprimanded for accepting $5,000

By Cynthia Kopkowski, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Boca Raton High School's head baseball coach received a reprimand Tuesday for accepting $5,000 from two team booster club officers, but school police cleared him in a related criminal investigation.

A letter from the school's principal went into Robert O'Leath's personnel file advising him that he should not have accepted a gratuity last spring, because it violated the ethics code governing Florida educators.

"Even though there's no indication that it influenced him, it was something that could open him up to allegations of wrongdoing," Principal Geoff McKee said, adding that he also will caution all Boca Raton High coaches similarly in the upcoming weeks.

O'Leath will remain the Bobcat's coach. He did not immediately return calls for comment.

Two parents of former baseball players alleged that O'Leath took money from booster club President Thomas Griffith and Vice President Eric Anderson in exchange for extra playing time for their sons. Investigators auditing the coach's playbook learned one had little playing time, and the other played frequently, but was a star player, McKee said.

"I didn't see anything that indicated preferential treatment for any student, or that his professional judgment was influenced by the money he received," McKee said.

Booster club members called the bonus -- paid on top of O'Leath's $52,000 salary for his work as the school's dean of discipline and $2,300 coaching stipend -- compensation for tilling fields, driving the team bus, running clinics, holding off season workouts and promoting players to colleges.

At their January meeting, they requested that the minutes reflect that they were aware of the payment, contradicting the two parents' claims that only the two booster officers who made the payment were aware of the arrangement.

cynthia_kopkowski@pbpost.com
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rz1rz15,000+ posts
The dollar amount is what raises eyebrows. What about the parents pooling money at the end of the year for a nice gift certificate for the coach. The amount is different, but the it's from the same pocket (booster/parent), and it's given for an under appreciated job well done. If there's no favoritism shown, and it doesn't break a written ethics code, where do you draw the line on a gift? You better document the rule and then uphold it at all ED levels. No more apples for that favorite teacher.
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ChillChill1,000+ posts
Dad

It is quite disturbing in many places.
Having been at a BC meeting last night,
I can tell you just when you start to believe everything is on the up-an-up......
the politics show their ugly head.
Not pretty....and a big mistake, IMO.

______________________________
By the time you learn how to play the game...
You can't play it anymore ~ Frank Howard
PAmomPAmom1,000+ posts
It's a well known fact in these parts that we had a daddy big bucks agenda machine rolling for years while the kid arrogantly reaped opportunity after opportunity from his booster club of ONE's manipulative efforts. It still makes me sick to think about it...led to NO chemistry on an incredibly talented high school team.

Is this heaven?...
PAmomPAmom1,000+ posts
The foot in the door was that the kid was and is a good ball player---BUT---no better than the rest of the good ball players along the way... AND, the well-known knowledge that the coach could be bought (he tried it with us---but we opted for my son to earn his PT on the field). The big bucks made sure the kid would be in the front of the pack every step of the way (whether he deserved to be or not). Perception becomes reality...

Is this heaven?...

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Dad04Dad045,000+ posts
quote:
drivers ed teachers in some of the wealthy districts making $125,000

I think I could learn to teach kids to drive. Do they get summers & holidays off?

quote:
Everybody wants something for nothing, even the school district, stipend of $2,000.00...it's an insult.


I humbly disagree and believe the coaches should teach and get the bulk of their compensation from teaching. It goes back to why the school is there, to field a cut-throat athletic program or graduate teenagers prepared for the next step, whether its a trade program or college. A a taxpayer I want the school to help prepare kids for adulthood. Some need more help than others.

Under 18 baseball is cut-throat enough already.

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B Bee>1,000+ posts
tsk-tsk, how horrible it is that extra funds were given to the coach that bumped his "effective coaching wages" from about 75 cents per hour to $2.25 per hour -
Confused

and from the results of the investigation/witch hunt, it sounds like the coach is easily worth 4 times that amount

also I wonder how much support (financial or sweat) was offered by those parents who made the false accusations during their time in the program - my bet is they sat on the sidelines complaining about how their sons were victims when in fact they probably s-u-c-k-e-d and why were those parents not named and embarrased as well??



lefties? - - - they just aint right!
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B Bee>1,000+ posts
I musta missed something

a) the officers of the booster club had kids on the team (congrats to them!)
b) the booster club gives the team (coach) $ (duhh?)
c) the kid that should play alot, does in fact play alot (duhh again)
d) the kid that should sit alot does, in fact sit alot (team player)
e) some whinny parents do not like the team run that way


I guess I'll identify with those willing to support a program

Smile



lefties? - - - they just aint right!
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W Will1,000+ posts
Booster clubs are one thing that have been discussed.Opinions have been raised on the issue. They raise money etc etc.. but when some of the money raised goes into the pocket of a coach there is something not right. Am I missing something here? As i stated before in previous posts I did not have a booster club during my tenure. I would never even imagine accepting money from an organization that was "helping the program" It is one thing when people throw their weight around and tell you they raised money for new dug outs batting cages etc etc but it is a whole different story when the money goes into the coaches pocket. Unethical to say the least.

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