Resident blames school leaders for St. Charles East problems

At least one St. Charles Unit District 303 constituent believes the ultimate blame for whatever an audit of booster clubs turns up belongs on the heads of the school board and district administrators.

Superintendent Don Schlomann announced an external audit of a specific booster club at St. Charles East High School last week.

The audit follows a police report and allegations of theft of athletic funds at the school.

Pete Kapusta was the only community member to speak about the pending audit at the first school board meeting since the district acknowledged the allegations.

But his message was clear: the audit shouldn’t stop with the booster club.

“To this date there has been a lot of impressive noise but a lack of substantive action and school board policy enforcement,” Kapusta said. “If school board policy was properly enforced ... there would be no need for expensive reviews and independent audits.”

Kapusta said he believed the first hint of wrongdoing at the high school came back in November 2010.

When asked what Kapusta was referring to after the meeting, school board officials would only say the comment was in reference to an act involving a specific student. Kapusta was not immediately available for further comment.

The independent audit of the booster club will begin this Friday; it is expected to only take one day. School officials expect to release the results of the audit early next week at a news conference.

Last month, a report the district commissioned on the St. Charles East High School athletic department revealed problems with bullying and hazing, a flawed employee review process, and a perplexing web of booster club activity, including coaches receiving payments from donated funds. Those funds were later returned. That report cost the district about $10,000. The price tag for the booster club audit has not been made public.