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Jupiter High baseball coaches used fund-raising money for travel to conferences, IG finds

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6 months ago

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Jupiter High baseball coaches used fund-raising money for travel to conferences, IG finds

While the review of the team’s financials is complete, the school district is also investigating complaints about a toxic environment on the team.

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Jupiter High School’s baseball team coaches used $6,000 from student fundraising to pay for coach trips to Nashville and Daytona Beach, overpaid “consultants” by more than $3,000 and required players to raise $1,200 each in order to play, more than double other teams in the area, a special review of the team’s activities has found.

The school district is also investigating parent complaints about a toxic environment on the team, including allegations that an assistant coach verbally abused and body-shamed players about their weight, and another complaint stating that a volunteer had pleaded no contest in 2014 to a disqualifying drug offense and shouldn’t have been allowed to work with the team.

The school board on Wednesday, June 13 approved the review of the team’s financial practices. The auditor’s recommendations include requiring former head coach Andy Mook and his assistant coaches to pay back $3,339 to the school district.

New Warriors on the block: Joe Giummule takes over Jupiter baseball for 2024-25 season

Mook resigned after 13 years with the team in December, the same month the school district began its investigation into allegations of his misconduct.

Jupiter High School Principal Colleen Iannitti formally responded to each part of the district’s review and promised to follow all district financial policies for athletic teams. Iannitti also reported that Mook and the assistant coach accused of body-shaming players are no longer involved with the program. The school has hired Joe Giummule to take the reins beginning this upcoming school year.

Mook did not respond to two separate requests for comment.

Jupiter High baseball team coaches paid for trips to Nashville, Daytona Beach with student-raised money

Five complaints from parents between April 2023 and February 2024 prompted the school district’s inspector general to review the baseball team’s financial practices.

The complaints, four of which were anonymous, claimed that Mook’s baseball team was possibly mismanaging money raised and contributed by students and their families. The complaints also said Mook and assistant coach Alex McCall were creating a hostile environment on the team by shaming players for their body size.

Another parent complained that Mook allowed volunteer Spencer Preston to work with the team although he should have been disqualified from employment that required direct contact with students due to a 2014 felony drug charge.

Preston was charged with selling or delivering cannabis within 1,000 feet of a school by the Martin County Sheriff’s Office. Adjudication was withheld.

Inspector General Teresa Michael’s office reviewed the financial allegations and sent the complaints about the team’s culture and the felony charge to two other agencies in the school district to investigate.

On the financial side, the district found that Mook, another unnamed coach and an unnamed volunteer improperly reimbursed themselves more than $15,000 throughout 2023 for baseball team expenses that they paid with their personal credit cards.

The inspector general found that it’s unusual for 22% of a program’s budget to be spent on reimbursements to coaches who put expenses on their personal cards instead of using district-approved processes for buying products from approved vendors using a central account. Those expenses were approved by Iannitti, who was not investigated by the inspector general.

But not all of those expenses were legitimate.

About $6,000 of the money reimbursed to baseball team coaches was for three coaches to attend the Florida Athletic Coaches Association conference in Daytona Beach in December 2022. Mook and another coach also traveled to the American Baseball Coaches Association conference in Nashville in January 2023.

Mook reimbursed himself $6,214 for those expenses from the baseball team’s main account, which is funded through student fees and contributions.

School district policy prohibits teams from using student fundraising money to pay for adult travel, instead stipulating that operating accounts, administrative accounts, facility rental accounts, booster club funds or donations earmarked for coaching clinics must pay for that travel.

The review also found that Mook overpaid two “consultant coaches” a total of $3,075 for conferences on top of their consulting contracts.

Finally, the review found the coaches accepted more than $4,500 in Zelle and Venmo payments from students and members of the public for entry into the team’s golf tournament, participation in the year-end banquet and other fundraisers. The coaches deposited the money into the team’s account, but school district policy prohibits using third-party payment apps to collect money for athletic teams.

The inspector general noted that without access to the coaches’ personal bank accounts, it’s impossible to tell whether all the Venmo and Zelle payments were ultimately deposited into the team accounts.

The review recommends that Mook and the other coaches involved be required to pay more than $3,300 back to the school. Jupiter High will also need to reimburse the baseball team for the $6,000 in adult travel that was financed through money raised by students.

Jupiter High students have to pay more to play varsity baseball than surrounding teams

Michael’s office also found that Jupiter High baseball players were required to raise money or contribute more than double the amount of other teams nearby.

During the 2023-24 school year, players on the team were responsible for raising $1,200 each to fund the baseball program under the school’s “fair share” contribution model, a common practice across district high school athletic teams and band programs.

The “fair share” program requires players to either fundraise $1,200 or opt out by writing the program a check so each player equally finances the team’s activities for the season. Some schools and programs offer scholarships to help families pay for their required “fair share” fees. But Jupiter’s “fair share” fees for baseball players far outpaced nearby William T. Dwyer and Palm Beach Gardens high school teams.

Gardens High did not charge any fee to participate, but the team required players to raise money for the team’s efforts. Dwyer High’s baseball team’s “fair share” fee was $500 for varsity players and $350 for junior varsity players. All three baseball teams have 23 or 24 members, but Jupiter’s baseball team has seven coaches, while the other two programs have five.

Jupiter High, Dwyer High and Gardens High are all highly competitive baseball programs that have traded off top spots in the district’s baseball scene in recent years. Dwyer won the Class 6A state championship this spring. Jupiter’s last state championship was in 2018.

Katherine Kokal is a journalist covering education at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at kkokal@pbpost.com. Help support our work; subscribe today!

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