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Marietta BOE wants coaches job descriptions

MARIETTA — The approval to hire several athletic coaches for Marietta City Schools was postponed by the board of education at its meeting Monday night, with board president Doug Mallett leading a push to wait until the board has job descriptions of the coaches to examine before voting on it.

Resolutions to hire 2018-19 coaches for varsity football and girls and boys golf, tennis, soccer, volleyball and basketball all were tabled until the next board meeting.

Mallett requested that the hiring resolutions be removed from the consent agenda for discussion.

“We need up-to-date job descriptions to give them expectations so they can be evaluated against what they’ve done,” he said. “If we use public funds for extracurricular activities, it’s reasonable to have accurate, up-to-date job descriptions, and it’s prudent to ask for those before we appropriate those funds.”

Marietta High School Principal Chad Rinard said pushing the approvals back a month would put some of the programs in limbo, particularly volleyball and basketball.

“That’s why we hired an athletic director, to go through those expectations,” Rinard said. “We wouldn’t recommend renewing those contracts if we had any concerns. (Athletic director) Rick (Guimond) has already gone through this with them.”

Board member Bill Hutchinson appeared to agree.

“I’m in favor of the process, but we shouldn’t be looking at each individual coach, that’s Rick’s job,” he said.

Board member Russ Garrison also expressed misgivings.

“We describe expectations and do reviews every year, we don’t want people to think expectations aren’t being set and review not being done,” he said.

The board discussion came after parent Jason Craven criticized the coaching style of boys varsity basketball coach Glen Dawson.

Rinard confirmed that Dawson’s contract would not be renewed. The proposal to the board was to hire Jason Secrest as boys varsity basketball coach. Dawson had been the coach for two years.

The board voted 4-1, with Garrison opposed, to table the approval of the athletic coaches.

Superintendent Will Hampton agreed to look into a complaint brought forward by parent Lisa Miller, who said her daughter at Marietta Middle School had been “threatened with juvenile charges and court” if she participated in last Friday’s student walkout to commemorate the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School killings. Miller also said that while students had received approval to participate in the walkout and were even joined by acting principal Timothy Fleming, some were locked into their classrooms.

“My daughter is scared of her teacher now,” Miller said. “I know that sounds crazy, but that’s what happened.”

Mallett said the board would look into the matter and Hampton agreed.

Rinard also confirmed that several of the students involved in the Marietta High School walkout the same day had been disciplined with five days of lunchtime detention because they failed to follow the plan agreed to between the administration and student leaders.

In other business, the board was informed by board member Mark Duckworth that the athletics advisory committee is looking for options regarding the school tennis courts and league affiliations, and has received encouragement from Marietta City Council regarding an agreement for use of the gymnasium in the Armory building.

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