Brookfield BOE rehires coach after controversy

BROOKFIELD— For members of a citizen’s group here, the school board’s decision to provide a popular football coach with a pair of one-year supplemental contracts is a step in the right direction.

A lot more needs to be done, however, for the board to restore its credibility with the community and for residents’ discontent with some school officials to be reduced, say those who formed the Save Our Schools committee.

SOS members and dozens of other people attended this afternoon's special school board meeting during which the board voted 3-1 to return Randy Clark as Brookfield High School’s football and weightlifting coach for a third season.

Confrontations at a school board meeting earlier this month stemmed in part from a newsletter the board had sent, saying that Clark attempted to recruit players from outside the district and that the football program’s enrollment had seen a big drop.

Clark said both reports were untrue and, last month, withdrew his application as coach, citing incidents in which he said Superintendent Michael Notar and board President Joseph Pasquerilla had lied to him.

“I was kind of forced to do that,” Clark said of withdrawing his application. “Certain things were happening behind my back that I didn’t know about, but that stuff’s all straightened out and I give the board a lot of credit for reevaluating me.”

Notar said he had recently interviewed eight or nine applicants for the coaching spot and, after talking with Clark this morning, decided to select him. Clark’s supplemental contracts go into effect immediately, Notar added.

“I wanted the opportunity to speak to him one on one,” the superintendent said. “He has a passion for [football] that makes him stand out.”

Clark, who has a 9-11 record in two years with the Warriors, said he never lost interest in the job and plans to stay with the school for years to come.

“I’d be here forever if they’d let me,” he said. “I’m excited to be back. I think we took some major steps in our first year and last year and there’s a few more major steps to take.”

For his part, Clark said he was surprised as well as “excited and enthused” to be back as a coach, but added that he wants to see school officials, staff, parents and others working together “for a common goal: the good of the kids.”

Clark also praised the several hundred people who attended a rally last Saturday that organizers said was set up to send a message to school officials who many residents say are fiscally irresponsible and allow personal vendettas to shape their decisions.

A few SOS members called Clark’s return “just a beginning” and many cited a laundry list of what they say are problems the board still needs to address. Among them are staff cuts in teachers, teacher’s aides and nonteaching workers; class sizes that are too large; inadequate and out-of-date teaching materials; a library in the elementary school that’s too small; teachers being reassigned without any input; and parents pulling their children out of the school system.

“They keep taking away and taking away to fulfill their promise of a balanced budget with no money, but they’re taking too much away,” said one SOS member who didn’t want to be identified. “You can take fiscal responsibility too far.”

SOS is planning a town meeting for 2 p.m. Feb. 10 at the Yankee Lake Ballroom to look at what, if any, legal course to take in reference to school officials and to seek community feedback.

State education officials put the district into fiscal watch in March   2006.

School district voters have defeated school levies the last two times they’ve been on the ballot.