Donors, parents press Middletown City Board for transparency in athletics fundraising and eligibility decisions

At the Middletown City Board of Education work session in February 2025, two residents urged the board to investigate fundraising accounting for high school athletics and asked the district to clarify how eligibility rules affect students who transfer into Middletown City Schools.

The complaints began with Chad Higgins, who said he donated to a summer 2024 online campaign called “Vertical Raise” intended to benefit the Middletown High School boys basketball program. Higgins said he attempted to donate anonymously but that donor information was not kept private and that he later learned donations appeared to have been deposited to the district’s general fund rather than earmarked for the team. “I would like to really just challenge the board to hold leadership accountable when they make decisions,” Higgins told the board. He said he filed a public-records request on Jan. 21 and received what he described as only “about 5 or 10%” of the documents he requested.

Another speaker, Jason Tobias, identified himself as a Middletown graduate and the parent of two children in the district. Tobias said his son, a sophomore who he described as a high-performing student-athlete and a former first-team All-GMC selection, withdrew from a winter sport at Middletown after what Tobias described as unclear disciplinary or eligibility treatment following a freshman-year issue. “Why are we taking that away from our kids?” Tobias asked the board, saying the experience had discouraged his son from playing at Middletown.

Board members did not announce any immediate investigations at the meeting. The presiding board member acknowledged the comments and said the board would ask questions and try to gather more information about the donors’ concerns and the student’s eligibility issues.

The speakers asked for specific follow-up: Higgins asked the board to review the fundraising process and to provide clearer documentation to donors, and Tobias asked the district to explain how transfer and disciplinary rules affect athletic opportunities. The board did not provide additional details about timelines for follow-up during the meeting.

The public comments occurred near the start of the meeting’s public-participation period; no formal motion or vote resulted directly from the two comments. The district’s next steps were recorded by board staff as a request to look into the issues raised and report back at a future meeting.