Niles board hires new science teacher

By Jordan Cohen

Bradly Yeager got the position despite the board president’s objections.

NILES — Bradly Yeager, hired earlier this year as Niles football coach, has been hired as a full-time ninth-grade science teacher.

But the hiring did not come without some strong objections from school board President Marlene Rhodes.

Rhodes said she was “disappointed” with Yeager’s selection and voted against his hiring. The remaining four board members voted in favor.

“I would have hoped that we had been more creative and aggressive in finding someone else,” Rhodes said.

During the board meeting, Rhodes said she would have preferred to find a teacher who is licensed and certified to teach from the seventh through the 12th grades. Yeager’s certification, according to schools Superintendent Rocco Adduci, is for grades four through nine.

“I picked the best person for the job,” Adduci said. “He’s qualified and he’s certified.”

The superintendent said Yeager will replace a science instructor who resigned for personal reasons. That instructor, Adduci said, had the same fourth- through ninth-grade certification.

“Thank you for making me part of the Niles instructional team,” Yeager told the board. After the meeting, Yeager declined comment to reporters.

Adduci said Yeager provides a good complement to the district’s science department and called him “the best selection” from a field of three candidates.

“I looked for someone to act as a role model with a strong personality and rapport with our students,” Adduci said.

Yeager’s teaching position will earn more than $27,000. According to board members, he had been teaching seventh- and eighth-grade math and science in a Youngstown area charter school.

Yeager was originally recommended for the head coaching football position on Jan. 25 by a eight-member screening committee, which made the recommendation to Adduci.

Yeager was supposed to be hired at the board’s February meeting, but his paperwork didn’t clear until after the board meeting, so the process was delayed. He was formally named head coach in March.