Too-Enthusiastic Boosters

Four members of the Laguna Beach Unified High School District board are targets of a recall effort. The move by some parents and educators was triggered by the board’s reinstatement, without pay, of former football coach Cedrick Hardman, who was arrested last September on charges of possessing cocaine and resisting arrest. Some thought that the board action sent the wrong message about drugs to students.

Now the California Interscholastic Foundation has joined the pursuit. The CIF is looking into a payment of $3,000 made last summer by the Laguna Beach High School football boosters club to Hardman, who has since left the school, for the summer training of student athletes.

Summer pay for extra coaching is neither unusual nor improper. Where the booster club ran afoul of regulations, according to the CIF, was in paying Hardman directly, without going through the school board or student government.

CIF Athletics Commissioner Stan Thomas sees that as “a very serious violation” of CIF rules. That’s the way the district should see it, too.

The CIF rule was enacted because by circumventing the school board or student government, where a payment would be publicly visible, wealthy communities could secretly give a lot of money to coaches.

Charlene Ragatz, school board president, defends the booster club and says that the payment was not a gift and was not given “under the table.” That raises the question of why, then, the coaching money was not paid according to CIF rules.

The answer may well involve nothing more than ignorance of CIF regulations, but Ragatz, whose son plays football at Laguna High, wears two hats --board president and parent representative on the booster club. She doesn’t see that as a conflict of interest. She should. At the very least, any arrangement that even appears to be in conflict does a disservice to the board and the booster club, and should be scrupulously avoided.