Keefe resigns from M-S PTO board, M-S district releases statement

BY DANI TIETZ
dani@mahometnews.com

Ken Keefe announced his resignation from the M-S PTO board after allegations that he did not disclose that he owned and profited from a company that processed Dawg Walk donations in 2018.

In Keefe’s Facebook statement, he took time to explain the situation from his perspective.

Keefe said two organizations associated with other school districts approached him about the software he’d developed to handle donations and prize accounts for the annual Dawg Walk fundraiser and celebration.

While the PTO was knowingly using the software, all transactions flowed through Paypal and deposited directly into the PTO’s bank account.

Keefe said that the “software development equivalent of bubblegum and baling wire.”

Over the course of the next year, Keefe states that he continued to work on the software and the website to produce something that could be utilized by multiple organizations.

Keefe said that he published the Fund For Us website after testing and stated the 5.9-percent with $.30 fee per transaction.

“I wasn’t looking to get rich quick, but I wanted to have enough to reinvest and continue to improve the Fund For Us platform,” he wrote.

Keefe said that as 2018 Dawg Walk planning began, he made a “critical mistake.”

“At PTO board meetings, I mentioned my new company, I talked about the work I was doing on the website, I asked for input on changes I should implement to handle new things we were doing in 2018, and I thought that I explained that this new for-profit small business was going to charge some overhead to cover its costs and reinvest in the platform I was building.”

Without a board vote or a written contract between the two entities, Keefe said that it is 100-percent his fault that the PTO board members did not know that he was the owner of Fund For Us.

“I own this failure to communicate,” Keefe wrote.

Keefe said that because the PTO did not understand that he was the owner of the business, he does not believe it is unreasonable that the board called for his resignation and asked him to refund the money he profited over the time the PTO used the Fund For Us program.

“I want to be 100% clear that this whole miscommunication was my fault,” Keefe said.

“Please don’t take anything I’ve written here as my attempt to say that the PTO board should have known. That is not at all what I am saying. I should have communicated better.

“The PTO board balances so many responsibilities, especially at the start of the school year. It was my mistake to not bring a written agreement to the board back in 2018.”

After learning about Keefe’s actions earlier this morning, the Mahomet-Seymour School District’s Superintendent Lindsey Hall issued a statement about Keefe’s actions.

“The School District is in the process of obtaining related facts and will review any implications as they may relate to Mr. Keefe’s position as an elected member of our Board of Education.

“The Mahomet-Seymour PTO has a long history of positive support of our K-5 schools, students and parents. We appreciate its efforts to communicate without constituents and parents regarding this situation. The School District looks forward to continuing to work with this organization in support of our educational mission, and trust our community will do the same.”