Thursday, December 19, 1996
Paul VI wants its $80 reimbursed after state cashed
disputed check
By Michael Rosenberg
INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
Last week, Paul VI received something surprising -- and confusing --
in the mail.
The school's $80 entry-fee check for the boys' Parochial A
state cross-country championships, which had been cashed Nov. 21.
The NJSIAA barred Paul VI from the Nov. 16 meet for failing to send
in an entry form on time. The check was cashed two days before the
Meet of Champions, for which Paul VI did not qualify as a result of
being barred from the state Parochial A meet. Paul VI officials had
been told after the Parochial A meet that the team could compete in
the Meet of Champions if they could supply proof that they had sent
in the entry form on time.
The check most likely had been cashed by NJSIAA officials who
thought the entry form had been sent elsewhere, NJSIAA assistant
director Carol Parsons said yesterday.``The check from the school is
marked in our secretary's handwriting that it was received here at
the office,'' Parsons said. ``No entry blank accompanied the check.
'' Paul VI athletic directo Mary Ellen Guittar said that the entry
form and the check were sent in the same envelope to meet director
Walt Chesney and postmarked Nov. 4, the last day allowed. ``They
were both together,'' Guittar said. ``Our secretary [ Dot Henshall ]
made copies of [ the form ] and the check. Any check that goes up to
the state has a form to go with it.'' Chesney could not be reached
for comment.
Guittar said that coach Jose Loyola gave her the form, signed
by Loyola, on Oct. 31. The school was closed the next day -- All
Saints' Day -- and she had Henshall send out the check and the form
on Monday, Nov. 4, with signatures from Guittar and the school's
principal, the Rev. Russell Rock.
Parsons said it is ``not unusual'' that the NJSIAA receives
a check without the entry form. Often, the form is sent to the meet
director -- in this case, Chesney -- and the check sent separately
to the NJSIAA. She said the check was probably cashed under that
assumption on Nov. 21, even though Paul VI had been barred from the
state meet five days earlier. Guittar faxed a letter detailing her
concerns and sent a copy of the canceled check to the NJSIAA on Friday
. She said she had not heard from the NJSIAA. "The distress that the
NJSIAA brought to the students when we should be helping them was
uncalled for,'' Guittar said in the letter. ``Even if we could not
avoid the decision for the Nov. 16 meet, we could have better resolved
the Meet of Champions. . . . We ask at this time that a check be made
out to Paul VI High School for reimbursement of funds for $80.''
Parsons said a decision on reimbursement will be made by executive
director Boyd Sands, who is out of the office until tomorrow and
could not be reached for comment.
``I'm sure we will [ reimburse ] ,'' Parsons said. ``I don't
think there is any doubt about that.'' Guittar said she ``was just
shocked'' that the check had been cashed. ``I couldn't believe they
had actually cashed it,'' she said.
Loyola has claimed that Chesney confirmed in a phone call
Nov. 15, the day before the state Parochial A championships, that the
form had been received. Chesney has said that he never received the
form.
Inquirer correspondent Ken Sugiura contributed to this article.
