According to comments from multiple CYFA Board Members on Facebook, a Partnership Agreement was NEVER presented to CYFA by the Cherokee County School District (CCSD). As a result, emails and documents were obtained from CCSD through an Open Records Request.

Here is a summary of what the documents contain, an expiation of WHY the Partnership Agreement was never finalized, and a link to the complete set of documents.

Summary

The 1,780-page PDF (provided by CCSD) documents the School District's 2024–2025 attempt to formalize a partnership with the Cherokee Youth Football Association (CYFA). CCSD offered official recognition, logo use, and promotion in exchange for full, unrestricted audit rights over CYFA's finances, but CYFA refused those audit terms, causing negotiations to collapse with no agreement ever signed.

Why the Partnership Agreement Was Never Finalized

The parentship agreement drafts, combined with all of the email correspondence, show that the parties reached an impasse over financial transparency and audit rights. This same issue was first raised in December 2024 by CCSD.

• CCSD’s Non-Negotiable Position (December 2024 onward)

  • CCSD insisted that, in exchange for continued use of school names/logos and official promotion as an “Allied Partner,” CYFA must submit to the exact same financial oversight that CCSD imposes on its own school-run junior programs. This explicitly included the right to conduct internal or independent audits at any time, at CCSD’s discretion and expense to CYFA only if CCSD chose.

• CYFA’s Resistance

  • CYFA repeatedly attempted to water down the audit clause in the drafts:

    • Limiting audits to once per year

    • Requiring CCSD to pay for them (CCSD agreed to pay for the costs in later drafts)

    • Adding Confidentiality Protections (CYFA required that CCSD NOT share the findings with the public).

By early 2025 the parties had exchanged multiple marked-up (red lined) drafts but never arrived at language acceptable to both sides on the audit/financial-oversight issue.

Talks Collapsed Without Execution

The proposed agreement(s) is dated February 13, 2025, but no version was ever signed by CYFA or CCSD.

By April 28, 2025, the new CYFA president, Tim Tippins, openly acknowledged in emails to high-school coaches that “we were unable to establish a formal partnership with CCSD this year.”

No executed agreement appears anywhere, and as of the current date (November 18, 2025) none has been finalized, but many were presented.

findings

The partnership agreement was never finalized and executed because CYFA refused to grant CCSD unrestricted, anytime access to its complete financial records for audit purposes — the single condition CCSD made non-negotiable in exchange for formal recognition, logo usage, and promotional support.

After months of redlining and revisions in early 2025, the parties deadlocked on that issue and abandoned the effort.