Details emerge in dispute over Lodi High cheer

During an emotionally-charged meeting at Lodi High School on March 6, principal Bob Lofsted cited unpaid debt from the 2016-17 academic year as his reason for canceling the school’s cheer program.

“Last year, cheer failed to fully pay off its debt, and it had to be paid out of the site budget. Lodi High is not obligated to pay for co-curricular clubs’ expenses. The budget is not big enough. Right now, sideline cheer is its own worst enemy. If it dies, it’s because it killed itself,” Lofsted said.

Although he refused to give the specific amount owed by the program, which is classified as a club instead of an athletic team, Lofsted agreed to give coach Heather Robertson until April 6 to develop a plan with parents to repay the debt and ensure that the program does not exceed its budget in the future. If they can develop such a plan, Lofsted said, he will allow the program to continue in the 2018-19 year on a probationary basis.

Leonard Kahn, Lodi Unified School District’s chief business officer, later specified that Lodi High School had to cover a $7,873 invoice from the cheer program for the 201617 year from their site budget, and that the cheer program still owes approximately $3,500. The cheer advisor is responsible for the program’s budget, accounting and spending, Kahn added, and the school’s administration has been working with the parents and coach to resolve the issue.

“LUSD club advisors do a good job of keeping their accounts in order, but as their main focus is more on their students’ growth rather than the financial side of things, there are occasions when financial issues do occur,” Kahn wrote in an email.

“Generally, these issues are small and rather easy and quick to tidy up. The large dollar amount involved in the LHS cheer issue presented challenges for our LHS leadership teams in terms of their ability to offer cheer a quick and easy solution,” Kahn wrote.

Cheer parent Ryan Bono said on Monday night that parents have already paid off the majority of last year’s debt, and hope to bring a finalized plan to Lofsted by next week.

“Parents are getting together and trying to figure out our next steps because we’re not totally sure what (Lofsted) wants besides the money. In regards to the $3,500 that we were in the red last

year, basically we were able to not only stay in the black for this year, but we also made enough money to cover most of what we owed last year. We were only short by a few hundred dollars,” Bono said.

During a Lodi Unified School District Board of Education meeting last Tuesday night, cheer parent Sam Mitchell said that they had not been informed of Lofsted's decision to cancel cheer until the previous Thursday. Mitchell requested that the board allow Lodi High’s cheer program to continue next year while they work on its plan to pay off their debt.

Michael Selling, another parent, said that Lofsted was “hostile, argumentative... very unprofessional,” and asked the board to look into training all school administrators in public outreach.

School board member Ron Freitas asked for a full report on Lodi High’s cheerleading program during the meeting, as well as a review of Lofsted’s behavior, receiving support from the rest of the board.

“We asked for a report on it, and we’re looking forward to what comes next,” Freitas said.

Dawn Vetica, assistant superintendent of secondary education, said in an email that she was not aware of any high school in the district having to cover the balance when a club exceeded its budget in the recent past.

“I have been in my position for six years, and this is the first time that I have been made aware of any club running into this budget issue at any one of the four comprehensive high schools,” Vetica said.