By BRAD KEITH
TheFlashToday.com NEWS & SPORTS – FREE & LOCAL
STEPHENVILLE (March 15, 2015) — Stephenville ISD board of trustees approved contract renewals for administrators and recognized DECA state qualifiers during their regular monthly board meeting Monday in Bond Auditorium.
Administrator contracts passed in a 3-1 vote following a closed session. Sherrie Evans, Keri VandenBerge and board president Dr. Ann Calahan voted to approve the measure, while Gary Sult voted against it. Cole Gilliam-Parks and Scott Osman were not present.
Sult made sure to point out his appreciation for administrators and their roles in leading the district before voting no. As he left the meeting he said his vote against the measure was not aimed at any of the administrators, but that he is against “perpetual contracts.”
The rest of the light agenda passed uneventfully, but board members did hear from one concerned citizen regarding the process by which Alan Haire was hired as athletics director on March 6.
“We were told that we would not go out and seek applicants, that if they didn’t apply they wouldn’t be considered. Then, all of a sudden, there were ‘wild cards.’ Then, we had a head coach and, now, we have an athletic director,” said Warren, an employee of Erath County. “It seems like it was not a well thought out decision. I don’t ever recall it being put on the board agenda for discussion.
“It seems to me that if this district needed an athletic director in charge of all sports across the board that you would have sent out an advertisement asking for athletic directors, not head football coach/athletic directors,” Warren continued. “I don’t understand why when you decided to split those positions, why you didn’t advertise for an athletic director and allow coaches from other sports…to apply. It seems like that if that’s a need for our district that it should have been discussed. We have no idea how you arrived at that decision, we have no idea what discussions took place. Apparently there were no applicants who were not football coaches who were considered.”
Offensive coordinator, Greg Winder, was promoted to head coach, also, on March 6. He was selected over Haire and other candidates for that position. Haire left Mabank two months to the day after being named head football coach – but not athletic director – there on January 6.
During his superintendent’s report, Matt Underwood informed board members that the home parking lot at Tarleton State University’s Memorial Stadium will be relocated to where some of the university’s intramural fields are located. The university is constructing dormitories where the home parking lot is currently located.
Underwood said he does not yet have a facilities use agreement from Tarleton athletics director and men’s basketball head coach Lonn Reisman, citing the continuation of basketball season at the university, spring break and the recent birth of Underwood’s son. He told trustees he hopes to have the agreement in hand soon.
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