Parent buys 184 lockers for Northeast High

[FBfan26]

Parent buys 184 lockers for Northeast High expecting partial reimbursement; CMCSS says it never agreed, sending them all back

By Christian Brown May 30, 2023 4:57 pm

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Clarksville NowContributed by Cece EuralesCece Eurales in Arkansas picking up the lockers that she purchased for Northeast High Athletics. 

CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – Last fall, Cece Eurales and her husband traveled to Arkansas to bring back 184 lockers for student athletes at Northeast High School. They thought they were doing the high school a favor.

According to their invoice, the Eurales family spent $4,000 to purchase and move the lockers to Clarksville, expecting to be paid back for most of it.

Crews in Arkansas load up the lockers that the Eurales family purchased for Northeast High Athletics. (Contributed by Cece Eurales)

But the school district says they can’t do that, and that there was never any agreement to repay the family. Now, all the lockers are being returned to Eurales, with the locker room left empty.

“I’m beyond angry and hurt that the school district would allow this to happen to a generous parent who was just trying to help the school out but was expecting to be reimbursed,” Eurales told Clarksville Now. “I had no idea there were hoops I had to jump through to generously do what I did. Never again.”

Need for football team lockers

It started in August 2022, when former Northeast football coach Claude Townsend held a meeting with players and parents to discuss the need for lockers. The student-athletes didn’t have lockers to put their belongings in, so items were being stolen from their changing room.

Over 10 years ago, the Northeast football coaches moved the locker room to its current location, which wasn’t built to serve as a locker room, according to CMCSS spokesman Anthony Johnson. “Since then, the infrastructure has not been altered by the Operations Department to make it a football suite. However, the district has provided a locker room with HVAC that can be used and was used before that transition several years ago,” Johnson said.

New school athletic lockers cost a minimum of $100 per unit. So brand-new lockers for 100 student-athletes would cost at least $10,000. For 200 students, $20,000, according to online locker sales sites.

Cece Eurales, a concerned parent, did some research to see if she could find a solution. She found a website where the University of Arkansas was auctioning off 184 lockers.

Eurales contacted Townsend and told him her family would be willing to pay up to $1,000 toward the lockers but couldn’t go higher. Townsend responded that the school might be able to pay up to $3,000 on the bid, according to text messages.

Before moving forward, the coach said he needed to talk to Northeast High Principal Tavis Massey. After allegedly corresponding with Massey, Townsend told Eurales the school would pay for the remaining amount if the bid went over $1,000, she said.

However, CMCSS told Clarksville Now that no member of the Northeast administration authorized the former coach to commit school funds toward the purchase.

Eurales ended up with the winning bid, and the family paid $1,200 for the lockers.

Transporting 184 lockers

The next step was for the lockers to be picked up from the auction house in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The original plan was for Eurales to travel there with members of the Northeast coaching staff. However, there was a last-second change of plans, and the Northeast coaches couldn’t go.

Eurales asked the auctioneer for a delay. He said they had a couple of days to pick up the lockers, otherwise they’d be put back on the market.

Eurales and her husband, Derek, took matters into their own hands. In September 2022, the family hopped on a plane, booked a hotel room, rented a U-Haul trailer and went to go pick up the lockers, bringing them back to Northeast to be unloaded.

The total cost of their trip came out to around $4,000, according to a Eurales family invoice. In addition to the lockers, plane tickets and U-Haul, the family had to pay for gas and for the lockers to be loaded.

Northeast coaches thanked the Eurales family, and the family asked the coaches if their purchase could remain anonymous for the time being.

Maybe a thank-you, but no reimbursement

Since the team was in the middle of the season, the Eurales family waited until the off-season to ask about being reimbursed.

In February, Eurales asked Townsend about being compensated. Their discussion prompted Principal Massey to have a phone conversation with all parties involved.

“I told him (Massey) I just wanted to be paid back,” Eurales said. “The lockers cost $1,200 and what we paid out of pocket to go and retrieve them. I’d like to be paid back for that. This is when he said, ‘In my 17 years at this school, I’ve never paid a parent back or given them a thank you.'”

Eurales was taken aback by his response. Even with wanting to remain anonymous, she said, she believed the least the school could have done is say thank you.

Massey offered for the Eurales family to attend a locker reveal ceremony in March where they could be thanked for the donation.

Eurales said she wasn’t just looking for a thank you, but to be reimbursed as well. Massey refused because, he said, he didn’t sign off on the transaction in the first place.

After hearing this news, Eurales got off the phone and emailed CMCSS officials.

During this same timeframe, Townsend was dismissed as the head football coach at Northeast High for a separate incident.

Locker negotiations

On April 18, the family heard back from CMCSS Attorney Carol Joiner, who said the school system was willing to reimburse them the $1,200 for the lockers, but nothing more, according to copy of the CMCSS email shared with Clarksville Now.

“There was no agreement for NEHS to pay for the lockers or your travel expenses,” said the email from Joiner. “The NEHS administrators never approved or authorized the payment of $3,000 for the lockers or your travel expenses, and the former football coach did not have the authority to commit to pay funds on behalf of NEHS.”

The Eurales family brought in their own lawyer, and after several negotiations, that lawyer told CMCSS that they needed to pay his clients $3,000 or CMCSS would have to return the lockers.

During the week of May 15, the school district released this statement to Clarksville Now: “We received a request earlier this week from the family, and the CMCSS Operations Department will be delivering the lockers back to the family.”

The 184 lockers are set to be returned to the Eurales residence on June 6.

“I feel sorry for the kids honestly,” Cece Eurales said. “That was the reason for getting the lockers in the first place. It really hurts my feelings that I went through all of this trouble for the school, and I’m out of pocket $4,000.

“I honestly don’t want them (the lockers) back,” she said. “I don’t want them, but I’m not giving them away. Just pay me back for my expenses. I’m not rich; I’m just like everyone else in the Northeast district economically. We’re not poor, but we’re not rich. We took a hit (financially) and I have five daughters.”

The Eurales family will now look to sell the 184 lockers online, with a beginning price of $4,000 – the amount they spent acquiring the equipment in the first place.

 

 

[theawesomebro]

what a mess.  seems like they should be able to get some kind of fundraiser going but what is she going to do with those lockers?  it's like they kept moving the goal line on the school, too.  it's anonymous.  no we want a thank you.  no we want to be paid back.  then give them back.  oh crap what do I do with 184 lockers????  now she has to sell them for what she has in them (hopefully) and eat the cost which is what was going to happen anyway, plus she's out all the trouble of moving them again AND the kids have nothing.  taking them back seems like a worse idea than eating the cost and/or setting up a gofundme.  yikes

[cbg]

Trying not to rush to judgement because I do not know all of the details.  However, on the surface this appears to be nothing more than another political decision made by public school bureaucrats. At some point the people will get tired of the politics and elect reasonable middle of the road individuals to serve on the school boards.

[1OldPatriot]

No good deed goes unpunished

[bounder]

Hate to be the Bad Guy but when money is involved "if it ain't on paper, it didn't happen"! Classic example. Hate it for the good guy he learned the hard way. Of course the school didn't pay for it, they've been putting it off for a while according to the article.

[howdoitknow]

That definitely sounds like a CMCSS type of thing.  

[Kevin38]

5 hours ago, howdoitknow said:

That definitely sounds like a CMCSS type of thing.  

THIS...one of the reasons football (mainly) and athletics suffer and under achieve in that county with the exception of a hand full of the sports programs...

[ILB1999]

Sounds like the former coach is most at fault.  I don't think schools can just give money to parents, makes sense.  Parents seem a little naive here, but the bottom line is there is a reason the former coach got fired.

Edited June 5, 2023 by ILB1999

[shiff53]

CMCSS and especially Northeast are a cluster...This is just the cherry on top.

[HTV]

This is incredible to me.  

It's not a large amount of money at all, and the benefit to the program is worth far more than the amount being put out, if it is accurate.  

Be a great opportunity for a business to come through and get their name up somewhere of prominence.  

 

 

[bigdawgtn]

are you surprised here? most of those schools facilities are a dump. Look at the field Kenwood plays on. The 50 yard line looks like the golf team practices their bunker shots there. 

[arshad221]

Lmao