A dispute is brewing between Henry County Superintendent Dennis Coe and a parents group in Headland regarding money from an ROTC support account.
The Henry County Schools have frozen about $4,000 in an ROTC account and intend to transfer it to the school system’s general fund. Coe said the money will be used to help repay part of an $85,000 debt Coe claims a Headland ROTC parents’ group owes the schools for maintaining the Headland ROTC program this school year. T.J. Allen, a spokesperson for the parents group, says the group doesn’t owe the system the $85,000, and that seizing the $4,000 is wrong because it was raised by students for ROTC events.
Henry County’s two ROTC programs, one at Abbeville High School and the other at Headland High School, were slated to be disestablished this year because of budget shortfalls. At the beginning of the school year, Coe and parents groups came to an agreement — the parents would fund $85,000 for the Headland ROTC if the system would foot the bill for the remainder of the cost of keeping the
Abbeville and Headland units. In the meantime, Coe and the parents lobbied the county commission for a special election to increase property taxes to help fund the units, among other things. The election was held, but it failed to win popular support.
Allen said Coe forgave the $85,000 debt after the election. Coe said he merely told Allen that they would discuss the debt later, and did not forgive it.
“I didn’t want to kick them while they were down,” he said.
Coe said the Headland ROTC had about $32,000 in various accounts, and that the money was mostly spent on field trips. Coe said he recently had $4,000 of the remaining money frozen to be later transferred to the general fund. He said he left the groups with $3,000 for their military ball and a decommissioning ceremony.
Allen said Coe shouldn’t have taken the money because it was raised by students for ROTC events.
“It’s punishing the children,” he said.
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