A years-long legal battle over control of Maryland’s PTA chapter could result in more than $1 million in legal fees and squandering member dues, real estate and other assets in pursuit of the case.

Those assets are now gone, spent on legal bills, and everyone appears to have lost in the squabble — particularly the parents and students in Maryland’s public schools.

On Tuesday, the National PTA paid $870,944 to the Montgomery County Circuit Court, the organization’s cost of their effort to wrestle Maryland PTA assets away from what they said had become a rogue volunteer board. The National PTA declined to comment on the case, citing the ongoing legal battle.

How two organizations whose mission is to help parents and students got embroiled in a legal tug-of-war is a story that begins in 2020 when the National PTA intervened following complaints about Maryland PTA leadership, including then-president LaTonja Carrera.

Somehow Maryland PTA’s president — a volunteer — was able to take control of the chapter’s assets, including its building, and refused to give them back even when the National PTA revoked the state affiliate’s charter.

The Maryland PTA leadership provided insufficient notice of board meetings and did not give its board access to the resources they needed, the National PTA alleged. Most Maryland board members were from the same county and several treasurers had quit, saying they were concerned that financial rules were not being followed. The national organization decided to take action to restructure the local chapter.

Then in March of 2021, the National PTA revoked the Maryland PTA’s charter to operate, essentially disbanding the PTA, an action it said it had never taken before. But the leadership of the Maryland PTA fought the decision. Most importantly, the leadership said it would not hand over its assets, including the dues that had been paid by parents in hundreds of schools to their local school PTAs.

“The nonprofit corporation is still open for business,” Carrera said by email in 2021 when asked if she would accept the National PTA decision.

Carrera, 46 of Upper Marlboro, said at the time she believed the revocation of the agreement was retaliation for “my revelation of a plot of individuals affiliated with National PTA attempting to mismanage and bankrupt our organization.”

In one hearing, the judge overseeing the receivership of the Maryland PTA accused Carrera of using the assets of the organization as her “personal piggybank,” according to court documents. The receiver uncovered documented evidence that Carrera had destroyed documents, forged documents and taken the assets, court documents said.

An attorney for Carrera declined to comment.

The National PTA wanted the Maryland PTA to hand over an unknown amount of money in its checking account, stop using the PTA brand and take any mention of the organization off its site. But they didn’t think Carrera would do so, so the organization sent a cease and desist letter to the Maryland PTA and asked the Maryland Attorney General to take control of the group’s assets.

The National PTA finally sued to get the assets, including the money that had been collected by school PTAs and paid as dues to the Maryland PTA, and set up Free State PTA, the organization that now operates as the state PTA.

The fight dragged on for more than four years, with more than a dozen lawyers and insurance companies involved in the dispute.

In 2022, at the request of the National PTA, the judge appointed a receiver to locate and protect the Maryland PTA assets, according to a statement on the group’s website.

Now the debt for that work from the receiver, Seth B. Waxman, is coming due. Waxman has billed more than $1 million for his services to disband the organization — of which $870,000 is the down payment. The national organization is appealing the fee, arguing that the receiver is charging more than the total assets of the Maryland PTA. A Maryland PTA building in Glen Burnie sold for about $550,000 and the proceeds will go to pay the receiver’s fees.

The national organization has posted the $870,000 as a bond so if they lose the appeal, the money can be paid to Waxman. Waxman did not respond to a request for comment.

Dylan Segelbaum contributed to this story.