In an effort to end a bitter dispute that has divided a once-thriving ballet program, the Vashon Park District has told both sides that they need to come together and elect a new board to oversee the fractured organization.

Until they do so, the park district’s five commissioners said at their board meeting last week, neither side will have access to the $4,000 in ballet funds that the district holds or theater dates for their annual winter performance.

An election has been set for Nov. 14, suggesting that an end to the dispute may be in sight. However, neither party is happy. The chair of one of two ballet boards claims the park district owes her group money, while Betsy Frazee, founder of the program and a member of the other board, says she’ll sell her mother’s diamond-studded wedding ring to cover the costs of a lawsuit she plans to file against the park district.

Meanwhile, about 30 dancers continue to rehearse a few acts of “The Nutcracker,” unsure whether this year’s show will be a scaled-back version of what they have put on in years past or if they’ll be able to perform a longer show with full costumes in the Vashon High School theater.

“I’m just sick these kids are in the middle of it and they should not be,” said Frazee, who was artistic director of the Vashon Junior Civic Ballet (VCJB) for 17 years.

The dispute centers over who controls Vashon’s only free ballet company — Frazee and her new board, helmed by Michael Goth, or the original board chaired by Kamela Trujillo. The two sides parted ways this summer, after a disagreement over swapping theater dates with Vashon Allied Arts’ ballet program escalated into a more heated discussion about who was in charge of the program, Frazee or the board, which was newly chaired by Trujillo.

The park district initially sided with Trujillo, and signed a contract with her board, asking them to change their name to Vashon Island Community Ballet to show that they had parted ways with Frazee. But after several difficult interactions with both groups and after Frazee said she was considering a lawsuit, the park district cancelled its contract with Trujillo’s group and released the dates that had been reserved for its performance of “The Nutcracker” in December.

At a park board meeting last week, commissioners expressed their frustration with the dispute — a conflict that has involved a considerable amount of staff and board time.

“I don’t want to go through this crap anymore,” commissioner Bill Ameling told the group.

The park board — involved because the park district partners with the the dance program and holds its funds — recently got into the middle of the situation, appointing commissioner Michael DeBlasi to arbitrate the dispute and make a decision.

But DeBlasi decided to try mediation instead, and while Frazee’s group came up with a written agreement to split the funds, Trujillo’s board decided not to participate, unhappy the park board didn’t follow through with arbitration.

At last week’s meeting, Trujillo’s board let the park commissioners know they were unhappy with the process.

“You pulled the rug out from under us,” Michael O’Donnell, a member of Trujillo’s board told the commissioners.

But the commissioners returned the volley, noting they were fed up, as well.

“We got near the finish line, and all the sudden we get back to this again,” DeBlasi said.

“You had five months to come to an agreement,” commissioner David Hackett added. “This (meeting) is the arbitration.”

Hackett put forward a motion to resolve the conflict, which passed unanimously. A meeting of the ballet company’s members — based on a list of 50 families that the park district has compiled from the program’s last three years of registrations — will be held next month. Members from either faction could be elected, and once a new board is in place, the district will then release the funds as well as the theater dates for the winter show.

“What I’m looking for at the end of the day is a board that is responsive to its membership, that represents the dancers and gets a show going, and that’s the board that gets the money,” Hackett told them.

But after the meeting, Trujillo, who is helping organize “The Nutcracker,” said she believes the park district is ignoring the fact that her board spent about $3,000 on the production, theater lighting repairs and dance scholarships — almost all of it before the district cancelled their contract in September. She said the district should honor what the board did under its contract by releasing the ballet program’s funds to them. What’s more, she added, she still doesn’t understand why the contract was cancelled after the district told them they were a legally legitimate board.

“There were a lot of things that we let go. … But at this point they’re leaving us owing people money,” Trujillo said.

She and other board members, she said, are hesitant to be part of a new board and enter into a new contract when the one signed in September wasn’t honored. The original contract stated under the park district’s responsibilities: “Disbursing funds as requested by VICB board designee.”

Susan McCabe, the park district’s program coordinator, said that at one point the park district’s lawyer issued an opinion that funds should be released to VICB board members as they spend them. However, since then, the park commissioners decided to hold all of ballet funds until the program has what they feel is a legitimate board.

“There was a legal opinion that the money should go to them, but that legal opinion was not accepted by the commissioners,” McCabe said.

Hackett said he hoped a newly elected board that represented the families in the program would agree to reimburse those who spent money. But Trujillo said if members of both factions are elected to the new board, it’s unlikely they would agree on anything. She added that dance instructor Kim Gallo and some of the dancers have said they will never work with Frazee again.

Throughout the course of the conflict, she said, Frazee has made harassing phone calls to ballet families. At one point, Trujillo said, Frazee screamed and cursed at volunteers in front of dancers, an event that Frazee denies.

“We’re at risk of losing our director and dancers. It’s almost like (the board is) setting us up to have the program fail because they know these things,” Trujillo said.

But Frazee, in an interview after the meeting, said she is pleased with the park board’s decision. Emotional at times, she said the most important thing is that she have access to the dancers again, claiming she’s been told not to call ballet families or show up at rehearsals.

“I think it’s a pretty good idea we do this,” she said. “It should have been done months ago. I don’t understand why they are so late doing it.”

Frazee said she hopes the new board makes her the executive director of the program, but went on to explain that she will soon begin working with four of her former dancers as part of her own dance company.

At the same time, she said she says she’s still planning to sue the park district over what has happened. “They set it up in the first place, this division, with incorrect information,” she said.

As the election and the winter performance draw near, the nature of this year’s production hangs in the balance. As Trujillo noted, the company would normally be advertising its show by now.

“There will be a performance,” Trujillo added. “It’s just a matter of what size and where it will be.”