Board member owes thousands to Portsmouth schools, records show

PORTSMOUTH

A nonprofit organization run by School Board member Sheri Bailey has failed to pay the school system more than $6,000 in rental fees dating back to June 2006, school division records show.

Bailey, who is running for a second term on the board in the May 6 election, failed to pay rent on I.C. Norcom High School facilities used by her Juneteenth Festival Co. in June 2006 and in early 2007, according to school facility rental agreements.

The company has paid only $450 of a more than $6,500 tab, the records show. For using the school, her organization was supposed to pay for such things as custodians and electricity - costs that the school system had to pick up.

"We definitely have every intention of getting it paid," Bailey said this week.

Bailey's group has used Norcom on several occasions, including in January and February 2007 to raise money for its annual festival.

The organization rented the school facilities in June 2006 over several days to throw the Juneteenth event, according to the records. The festival celebrates the abolishment of slavery in America.

Bailey, a playwright, launched a Hampton Roads Juneteenth festival in 1997, and has held it around the region.

Bailey acknowledged this week that the financially struggling organization owes money to the Portsmouth school division, but she questioned whether it was more than $6,000.

In recent weeks, she said, division Superintendent David Stuckwisch has sent her letters requesting that she pay about $4,200, and reminding her she could not use the Norcom facilities again until she had made the payment.

Reached Wednesday while on vacation in Texas, Stuckwisch said he became aware of Bailey's nonpayment in June, only days before the staging of the 11th Juneteenth Festival at Norcom.

Because the event had been advertised, Stuckwisch said he let her use the grounds but not the school building.

"Anybody who has used facilities and not paid, we would expect them to pay the debt," Stuckwisch said.

Earlier this year, in a closed session with the School Board, Bailey said, she told fellow members that the rental bill "was not being ignored" and that her group was "looking to get it paid."

School Board Chairman James Bridgeford said Wednesday that he has told Bailey her organization's use of the school building appeared to him to be a conflict of interest.

"She's asking the school system, which she is part of, to give her a place to hold an event," Bridgeford said. "I think Juneteenth is a wonderful thing, but that has nothing to do with the school system; it has nothing to do with the School Board."

Stuckwisch said that Bailey's use of a school building is "probably not a conflict, as long as it (the bill) is paid."

Juneteenth has struggled financially for years, but Bailey said she has stuck with the effort because of her passion for helping people understand slavery and its place in American history.

Several years ago, the city had provided money for the event, but the City Council is not now funding the organization, Bailey said. In 2005, in a move to trim expenditures on local arts groups, the council eliminated $3,750 for Juneteenth.

"If the city were simply to provide Juneteenth with the municipal support it has in previous years, that would be extremely helpful," Bailey said. "What I would do is apply that to that debt immediately."

Juneteenth has had other money problems. Bailey says that it also owes about $15,000 to the Internal Revenue Service.

In 1997, she says, she filed for bankruptcy because someone working for the festival stole that year's profits. She said she did not press charges. Three years later, she filed for bankruptcy again because of Juneteenth-related financial woes, she said.

Bailey said she takes responsibility for the company's predicament with the school system and plans to build a board of directors with financial expertise to avoid future money problems.

Bailey remains hopeful that she can throw the 12th annual Juneteenth Festival at Norcom again this June.

Cheryl Ross, (757) 446-2443, cheryl.ross@pilotonline.com