Emotions were high at the Greene County Schools board of education meeting Wednesday night as Heather Hinote, wife of former varsity basketball coach Jeramie Hinote, confronted the board.
The basketball teams wrapped up their season at a banquet Monday night. Jeramie Hinote was notified Tuesday morning that his contract would not be renewed for the 2016-17 season. Hinote is not a teacher and has no other contract with the school.
Heather Hinote asked the board for an explanation of why her husband should no longer be the boys varsity basketball coach and why he was told “that the program wasn’t going the way you guys (the board) wanted it to go and he wasn’t working with the younger age group kids, even though he has been actually helping with both the boys and the girls in the younger age groups,” she said. “I feel like this has been a personal attack on him, and I’d like you guys to explain it to me.”
About 50 people attended the meeting, including basketball players and parents. Some stood or sat on the floor. Board president Teresa Hagen, in beginning the open forum portion of the meeting, had said the board could only listen during the open forum and could not discuss items not on the agenda.
Tim Tucker, parent of basketball player Trey Tucker, asked if the matter could be put on the April agenda. “I don’t know that we can particularly talk about an individual employee in an open meeting,” Hagen said.
Board member Sam Harding told Tucker there is a procedure to do that, and the procedure could be obtained from the superintendent.
Tucker pressed, asking if all board members would be present. Lana Teeples asked if there could be a town hall meeting “where there could be public discussion of concerns… just have an open discussion where parents could discuss concerns, have open discussion about solutions, bring resolutions to the table like you do at a town hall or open forum.”
When Harding said the board is bound by policy, Tucker mentioned the board’s “sit-down” with Kurt Oathout. Board secretary Brenda Muir explained the whole board wasn’t there. “So how do you get the whole board to sit down and talk about this stuff?” Tucker asked.
Harding answered that items need to be listed on an agenda for discussion, and that there’s a procedure for dealing with questions like Heather Hinote brought up.
According to board member Mark Peters, the board had not been part of the decision not to renew Hinote’s coaching contract. The board had been notified that an evaluation of Hinote had been done, but no more than that.
Heather Hinote asked if the board should be more involved in such a decision. “That’s not how it goes,” Peters said. He explained the “hierarchy” of the district and said that grievances need to follow that heirachy.
“The most important point of all is that if it rises to board level, the board has to be impartial, completely. Anything that we know, like if we stuck our noses in and started investigating, we’re no longer impartial, and we could be disqualified from making the decision. That’s part of the Code of Iowa. We’re supposed to be impartial and not supposed to know the kinds of things you’re trying to talk about, or we can’t deal with it when it finally gets to our level for a hearing,” Harding said.
Celli Whipple read a prepared statement. She said her main concern was communication, and there would not be articles in the media and on social media “bashing” the school “if people felt like they were actually being listened to and communication lines were open. If communication lines are open people feel cared about. There are a lot of questions and no answers being given. Communication creates trust, and when there is no communication, there is no trust,” Whipple said.
She referred to an unnamed board member’s comment that people who speak with board members all have “agendas.” She said she and her husband Doug have spent considerable time promoting athletes in the district. “The only agenda we have is to help make this district great for kids and an environment where teachers and coaches want to teach and coach and feel support to do what is needed to get their jobs done effectively. An agenda for all kids to go to school, feel safe, and participate in the many activities we offer and feel they are truly a part of the experience to be successful,” Whipple said.
She encouraged the board to put more effort into the athletic program and to make the position of activities director fulltime. “We’re a 3A school and I don’t want to hear it’s a money issue. Our students need this and you as a board need to figure out how to make it happen,” she said.
She also suggested that the same effort that is put into professional development for teachers be put into the athletic department, and that coaches and athletes should be sent to conferences.
Whipple reminded the board that post in every building is a page with the district’s vision, mission, values, goals and guiding philosophy. At the bottom is a tagline “Better every day.” “Are we working on getting better every day? Are we communicating on how we’re working on getting better every day? I believe above every door in every building we should have this statement hanging there: ‘Better every day.’ If we’re not moving forward, we’re moving backward. If we are not communicating, we are not building trust. If there is no trust, there is no ‘us’,” Whipple concluded.
