NLR Booster Club President Scott Miller Discusses Resignation Letter
All of the North Little Rock Athletic Booster Club officers informed Superintendent Kelly Rodgers of their intentions to resign following the final home game of the 2016 regular season. Rodgers received notification in a letter, which can be viewed by Clicking Here.
In short, the letter states "The Boosters cannot exist without effective, consistent leadership within the North Little Rock School District (NLRSD) Athletic Department.”
The letter goes on to add “Failure to do so results in damages to the relationships between the Boosters and the business community, coaching staff, players and parents, and by association damages the relationship between the NLRSD and those same groups.”
The letter is signed by booster club President Scott Miller, Vice President Shannon Smiatek, Secretary Katie Sorensen and Treasurer Diane Ehlers.
President Scott Miller spoke with ArkansasVarsity.com while on vacation in Mexico via telephone Saturday evening to give more insight into the boards reasons for resigning.
Many people have reached out to ArkansasVarsity.com asking if this has anything to do with the situation surrounding former North Little Rock head football coach Brad Bolding. Miller made it clear that this has nothing to do with that situation.
“Absolutely none, and I put that on a Facebook post when someone was bringing that up earlier,” said Miller.
Miller was able to elaborate some on the reasoning behind the decision, but couldn’t talk specifics due to some of the issues potentially being personnel issues.
“It would be wrong to discuss personnel issues that the (school) board could end up deciding on,” said Miller. “As you know, I’ve served on the board for six years, so I do not want to get into what could be personnel issues with any one or more individuals within the school district.”
However, Miller did refer to the letter.
“The letter says we need clear, consistent leadership and decision making and management within the athletic department, and because of inconsistent leadership or management in there, some changes need to be made in our opinions,” said Miller. “It is extremely difficult to operate when you go to the community, businesses, and to parents to ask for financial support and commitment of their time when the commitments we as a group make basically either aren’t honored or are changed despite prior agreements and despite prior approvals.”
Miller also stated that there is a larger mission at play for the North Little Rock Athletic Booster Club.
“There is a larger mission here, and that is not just to raise money,” said Miller. “We have probably been more successful than any booster club at North Little Rock history in the past 10 years, but the larger mission is building a community support and building a community fan base, business base, and everything else. Look at North Little Rock and compare that to Benton and Bryant. I know Benton is a 6A school, but compare it to other 7A schools like Conway and Cabot, and look at the community and business support on Friday night game days, then go to North Little Rock. That requires more than just going to people and raising money, that requires a larger communication, a larger effort with businesses, with fans, with other community groups, and other school groups.”
Miller also made it clear that they are not demanding anyone be terminated from their job.
“We didn’t stand up and demand that someone has to go,” said Miller. “We said we can’t function and therefore we have to leave.”
Miller stated he believes the current booster club has been successful during their short term.
“I would arguably say that we were a successful leadership group, giving our brief and short history,” said Miller. “I also believe you have to look at the schedule and when this is happening. The booster group reformatted and the former group didn’t survive the field restructuring when we had to play a year at War Memorial. We were in transition, and that was extremely difficult. We reformed last September, and with the administration support I was elected president of the boosters. I did not actively seek this job. It happened when I showed up to a meeting one day. We spent from last September to the spring writing bylaws and getting funding, getting membership structuring set up and software that we needed for memberships. The plan being the fall as a booster club is when we need to make our major push to get funding, and we came up with different programs.”
Miller also spoke about why the decision was made no for the officers to resign.
“It is only four weeks into the season, so why now? You are four weeks into the operational fundraisers, and obviously if there wasn’t an issue there, this isn’t when things could come to be,” said Miller. “It’s when you either can’t or you are having difficulties fundraising due to clear and inconsistent management within the athletic department.”
North Little Rock Superintendent Kelly Rodgers told ArkansasVarsity.com partner THV11 that he doesn't have enough information to comment, but he is unsure where the issue stems from.
"I hope to speak with the club soon once the president returns from vacation,” Rodgers told THV11.
Miller stated that he spent a considerable amount of time with Rodgers in the past week before he left for his vacation.
“I spent more hours in meetings with the superintendent last week than I did the athletic department,” said Miller. This should tell you something. He is not unaware this was happening. You found me, but I don’t have that reach out effort here.”
ArkansasVarsity.com will continue to update with new information as it becomes available on this situation.
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