Monday, October 20, 7:00 PM, the Halbrook High auditorium.
About two hundred people filled the red fold-down seats.
Five board members sat at a long table on the stage.
Rod Haskett sat second from the left, in a suit this time.
His name plate faced the room.
Dr. Ashby sat at the far end.
Ellen Voss sat beside him with a red folder.
The Herald reporter sat in the front row with a notebook on her knee.
Kendra and Jason sat in row two.
Kendra had her hair done.
Jason already had his hands between his knees.
I sat on the aisle in row six with the white binder on my lap.
The board got through the minutes and a bus contract in eleven minutes.
Then the board president read the next line of the agenda.
"Item 7."
"Booster Audit Exceptions."
Rod leaned into his microphone before anybody else could.
He'd recused himself from Item 9.
Not from this one.
"As a board member, I'm concerned," he said.
"Nine years of unaudited cash at one stand."
"No oversight."
"No receipts."
"The public deserves to know where that money went."
Somebody behind me said, "Mm-hm."
Ellen Voss didn't lean into her microphone.
She just spoke, and it carried.
"It's audited, Mr. Haskett."
"A hundred and eight deposits, reconciled to the cent."
"My memo's in your packet."
"Right behind the exception."
The room shifted.
Two hundred seats creaked at once.
Rod flipped pages.
He didn't find it fast enough.
"The signer of record," the board president said.
"Mrs. Wozniak."
I walked down the aisle to the podium.
I set the binder down and kept my hand flat on it.
"My name is Theresa Wozniak."
"I signed the booster certification on October 15."
"I wrote an exception on it."
"Here it is."
"Kendra's drive took in eleven thousand two hundred forty."
"That's from her own post."
"The district got sixty-four forty."
"Hector Salinas got nothing."
"His invoice is still unpaid."
"The rest is on page three of Item 9."
I took the page out of the binder pocket and unfolded it.
I read it out loud.
"'Booster partner deposit received July thirtieth: four thousand eight hundred dollars.'"
"'Payer: Halbrook Football Boosters.'"
Nobody moved.
The reporter stopped writing.
Then she wrote faster.
Rod pulled his microphone closer.
"That was a private business arrangement with a parent."
"Venmo's not district money."
"Everybody in this room knows that."
"Then why'd you write 'Halbrook Football Boosters' on it?" I said.
"In a board packet."
"To this board."
He opened his mouth.
"You wrote 'Boosters' on it, Rod."
"I just read it out loud."
He looked down at his own packet.
He turned to page three.
He read it like somebody else had typed it.
His finger stopped on the line and stayed there.
The board president covered her microphone and said something to him.
Then she uncovered it.
"Mr. Haskett, please step down from the dais."
He sat for a second.
Then he picked up his packet and went down the side steps.
There was no empty seat for him.
He stood against the wall under the exit sign.
Kendra stood up in row two.
"That was the uniform money!"
"The forty-eight hundred!"
"You said it'd come back with the contract!"
"You told me in July it was your deal!"
"You said I'd be the president who brought in Big Rod's!"
Rod didn't look at her.
Jason did.
He looked at her a long time.
July.
Then he went back to his hands.
"That's the kids' money, Rod!" a man yelled from the back.
The board president tapped her gavel once.
I went back to row six and sat down.
I didn't add a word.
Ellen Voss leaned into her microphone.
"For the record."
"The purchase request for Invoice 4471 gave the reason as 'transition shortfall, prior treasurer.'"
"My office reported zero drive deposits on October 3."
"The prior treasurer's deposits are all there."
"The drive is forty-eight hundred short."
A board member asked about the trailer.
"Mrs. Wozniak forwarded me a receipt from Friday," Voss said.
"Merchant, Big Rod's Smokehouse LLC."
"None of it reached the fund."
"One more thing."
"A board member can't hold an interest in a district contract."
"That's Ohio law."
"Recusing doesn't fix that."
"I'm referring the drive to the Auditor of State."
Somebody moved to strike Item 9.
Somebody seconded.
The vote was 4–0.
A second motion barred the trailer from district property.
Another 4–0.
Dr. Ashby set down his pen.
"Under board policy, booster officers serve at my pleasure."
"Mrs. Kendra Wozniak is removed as president, effective tonight."
"The forty-eight hundred is to be restored to Fund 300-9014."
"And the hold on Mrs. Theresa Wozniak's clearance is lifted."
In the front row, the volunteer coordinator opened her laptop.
The screen behind the dais blinked and refreshed.
WOZNIAK, THERESA — CLEARED.