Why did Irmo High School band never receive $30K in funding?
Update on March 4: How Lexington-Richland 5 is addressing the band funding shortfall.
What happened to $30,000 that was supposed to go to the Irmo High School band?
Irmo Band Booster Club President Beth LoPresti told the Lexington-Richland 5 school board at its Feb. 23 meeting that the supplemental money that band parents depend on was apparently never deposited into the band account.
“Historically this would have been received July 1, but we were aware the cyberattack would possibly delay those deposits,” LoPresti said, referencing an incident earlier in the summer where hackers knocked out the school district’s computer system and demanded a ransom.
After LoPresti questioned the lack of funding at the board meeting last week, The State reached out to Lexington-Richland 5, school board chair Kimberly Snipes and superintendent Akil Ross about the band funds. None had responded before publication, and the booster club president said she still hasn’t received a clear answer on whether the band should still expect to receive the money.
LoPresti later told The State that the marching band would regularly receive $20,000 in funds from the school district to cover additional expenses, plus another $10,000 from a fund that is regularly distributed equally to the district’s three high school band programs. She stressed that the program’s usual instructional funds from Irmo High School had not been affected.
She told The State she went to the school board now because the lack of the funding is starting to bite the band program and band parents.
“I will say the band is currently in the red,” LoPresti said. She spoke to the district’s finance director after the meeting and was told “we should turn over our receipts and invoices to bring us back to black.”
But the club president said she was still unsure why the funding had seemingly gone missing in the first place, and she’s still unsure if the money will be available in the future.
“As of today, there’s been no clarification and there’s been no transparency,” she said. “I don’t know where it went to, or if we will possibly have to work without it next year.”
LoPresti said she was unsure if the bands at Chapin and Dutch Fork high schools had received their share of the district band money this year as well.
The funding is used for the expenses that normally accrue during regional and state band competitions.
“We have 65 students who we have to get to several parts of the state, props that go in a tractor-trailer, we have to hire a CDL-licensed driver to take that trailer to competition, we have to feed them at the competition, repairs to uniforms... it’s a lot of the things you don’t think of,” LoPresti said.
Without the additional funding, “it’s up to band boosters and parents to pay for that stuff, and we’re all struggling in this economy,” LoPresti said. “We have been dependent on those funds coming from the district.”
Without the additional funding from the school district, the booster club may need to hold more fundraisers or increase band fees to cover the costs, LoPresti said.
“If the district can’t provide it, I would understand that, with the federal funding changes and everything,” she said, “But we would just like some transparency in what would be expected.”
LoPresti asked that the board make the money available to the band before the end of the school year, or roll it into funding for band in the 2026-27 school year.
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