Subsidizing Religion: The Monroe County School District and Eagles Rest Ministries

If you have been reading my essays the last few weeks in the “Blue Paper”, you know that I have been looking into community use of School District property.  More specifically, I have been examining Facilities Use Agreements (FUA’s) between various schools and community organizations.  It has been an interesting exploration to say the least.

The School District has very specific policies governing community use of school facilities.  SB 7510  – Use of District Facilities, along with the terms and conditions contained in Facilities Use Agreements, govern the contracts between the District and renters.  What is most interesting about the execution of these policies is that they are ignored more than they are followed.  A particular case in point is an FUA between Poinciana School and Eagles Rest Ministries.

I discovered this contract last May as a result of a Public Records Request.  The FUA is undated, but we know that it is at least 2 years old because it was signed by then principal Amber Bosco, who has been principal at Key West High School for over 2 years.   (It is not unusual to find documents in the School District, including contracts, which are undated.)  The fact that the charge for A/C use is $45/hr., not the $55/hr. that has been in effect since 2011, (Schedule of Rental Rates, also undated), suggests that the FUA is more than 3 years old.

The standard terms for an FUA include:

                        Rental Fee

                        Sales Tax

                        Custodian Charges

                        Air Conditioning

While Principal Bosco did assess a $ 45/hr. air conditioning fee, she waived the other charges including the $ 100 rental fee for each use of the auditorium.  To Eagles Rest Ministries’ credit, they have faithfully paid the weekly air conditioning fee, but that is all.  No rent or custodial charge has ever been levied or paid.

According to the terms of SB 7510 – Use of District Facilities, Principal Bosco did not have the authority to sign the FUA and thus bind the District nor did she have the authority to waive any provision.  Her authority was limited to making a recommendation to the superintendent.  The limit of any principal’s activity with regard to FUA’s was confirmed by Superintendent Mark Porter in an email to me.

I did not find ANY FUA that had been signed by the superintendent and there are no copies of FUA’s in the central office.  Consequently, there is no way to know if the appropriate fees have been charged and collected and then deposited into the proper bank account.

I called this situation, specifically the FUA between Poinciana School and Eagles Rest Ministries, to Superintendent Porter’s attention last May.  The subject was raised by the Audit and Finance Committee at its June, 2014 meeting.  In attendance were Executive Director of Finance and Performance James Drake and Executive Director of Operations and Planning, Patrick Lefere.  Both men promised to correct the situation, to draft a new contract so as to collect rent and assess the proper A/C charge.  These promises were confirmed to me in writing by the superintendent’s PRR liaison, Karen Hladik.

Executive Director of Finance and Performance Drake further promised that he would, that day, send a reminder to all principals that all FUA fees are to be deposited in the District’s general fund, not an individual school’s internal account.  It is now 4 months later.  Executive Director Drake never sent the email and the contract with Eagles Rest Ministries has never been revised.

After repeated requests to the superintendent and his minions to fulfill the promises to redraft its FUA with Eagles Rest Ministries and to begin charging rent in accordance with District policies, I appealed to the District’s legal counsel, Dirk Smits.  My argument was that, when the District failed to charge Eagles Rest Ministries rent for the use of the auditorium at Poinciana school, it was, in effect, subsidizing a religious organization.   You cannot, I contended, charge some groups rent while not charging others.

That observation apparently touched a nerve.  Smits dismissed my appeal with the sweep of his hand, asserting that the District did not have a rental schedule in place for FUA’s and therefore was not lax in failure to charge Eagles Rest Ministries a weekly rental fee for the use of the auditorium at Poinciana School.

It was Smits’ position that there was no evidence that the School Board had ever approved a “Schedule of Rental Rates” and it was up to me to prove that the Board had done so.  He asserted this despite the fact that, when I requested a copy of the District’s rental charges, the superintendent’s PRR liaison provided me with “Community Use of Facilities and Equipment, Schedule of Rental Rates.”  He asserted this despite the fact that this document is widely published and circulated, and is the reference tool used by all school bookkeepers when instructed to assess rental fees. He asserted this despite the fact that when proposing a revision of “Facility Use Agreement & Fee Schedule”, the superintendent’s representative noted that when the 2011 version of SB 7510 was adopted “it did not include a fee schedule.  The fee schedule from the previous Board policy, (“Community Use of Facilities and Equipment, Schedule of Rental Rates”), remained in effect, although not specifically approved by the School Board.”  I will be most interested to learn how Mr. Smits reconciles his argument with regard to the above, particularly the position taken by the superintendent’s representative.

In the end, it really does not make any difference what Smits believes with regard to whether or not the Board approved a Schedule of Rental Rates because the Board has delegated that authority to the superintendent.  I would argue, contrary to Smits, that Board approval is not necessary or required to establish rental fees.  SB 7510 states under “Schedule of Rental Rates”:

“The Superintendent or his/her designee shall develop administrative procedures for the granting of permission to use District facilities including a schedule of fees. “   (Emphasis added)

Board policy is clearly to have the superintendent establish rental rates which he has done.

Another fee that the District has never charged Eagles Rest Ministries is for custodial services.  The standard Facilities Use Agreement states:  “All rental activities must be supervised by an approved employee on the site (included in the cost of rental.)”  Obviously, if the District does not charge rent, it can hardly pay the wages of “an approved employee” from the rental fee.  As best I can tell, “an approved employee” has never been on site Sunday mornings at Poinciana School to supervise the Eagles Rest Ministries’ services.  It appears that the church has its own keys to the school and can fairly well do as it wills.   I have a Public Records Request pending to determine if an “approved employee” has ever been on site and/or paid.

Ultimately, whether or not the school Board has approved a Schedule of Rental Fees becomes a moot point when we examine how the District has made various facilities available to the public.  The law and numerous court decisions have made it abundantly clear that an agency of government, in this instance the School District, cannot treat one group differently than another in providing access to facilities.  Simply put, “Do for one; do for all.”

The 5th and 14th amendments to the Constitution mandate that everyone, every group or organization, receive the same treatment under the law.  One group cannot be favored over another, a concept with which Mr. Smits is very familiar.

When FKAA requested use of the auditorium at Sugarloaf School for a series of meetings on sewer construction in the Lower Keys, FKAA was charged a $100 fee for each meeting.  When Fishermen’s Hospital requested use of the auditorium at Marathon High School for two meetings, Fishermen’s Hospital was charged $100 for each meeting.  Similarly, when a dance class asked to us an auditorium for a recital, they were charged $100.  When a group of quilters asked to use an auditorium to display their wares, they, too, were charged the standard rental fee of $100 per day for the weekend.  I could enumerate more instances where certain groups were charged rent in accordance with the District’s “Community Use of Facilities and Equipment, Schedule of Rental Rates”, but I think I have made my point.

For whatever reason(s), the School District has followed an arbitrary and capricious policy when levying rental rates.  Some pay according to the “Schedule of Rental Rates”.  Some pay a donation in lieu of the renal charges, a common practice at Key West High School.  And, some pay nothing, as is the instance with the Eagles Rest Ministries.

I repeat my earlier contention that the School District, by not charging Eagles Rest Ministries rent even after being warned of the situation, is, in effect, subsidizing a religious organization and that is against the law.  Rick Boettger has expressed an intention to go to court to obtain a Writ of Mandamus to force the School District to follow the law.  I have endorsed that proposal and offered to assist, financially and otherwise.

For the first time in history, the Monroe County School District has a lawyer for superintendent.  One would think, with a lawyer at the helm, the District would always adhere to the letter of the law.  As the foregoing indicates, that has not always been the case. When the issue of the FUA between Eagles Rest Ministries and Poinciana School was raised by the School Board, the superintendent responded by parsing his words and deliberately misleading the Board into believing that there were no problems with the FUA.  That would have been the perfect opportunity to correct the situation.  Instead, the superintendent chose to look the other way and act as if all was in order when he knew it was not.