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Niles board tables coach hiring decisions
By Jordan Cohen
NILES
A decision on whether to rehire Niles McKinley head football coach Brad Yeager along with other coaches in other sports has been delayed till January, pending a review by the school district’s athletic council.
The supplemental contracts for Yeager and the golf and soccer coaches were on the board of education’s meeting agenda Thursday. Approval had been recommended by Superintendent Rocco Adduci.
“We want to see where we’re going moving forward,” said board member Tony Perrone, whose motion to table votes on Yeager and the other head coaching contracts for fall sports was unanimously approved. Perrone is the board representative on the athletic council.
Perrone said the council will meet in January and make its recommendations before the board’s next regular meeting Jan. 20. He denied the delay was based solely on Yeager’s proposed contract.
“This decision had nothing to do with any one position,” Perrone said. “There are things we have to look at.” Perrone did not elaborate or provide specifics.
He also declined to speculate whether the athletic council might recommend against a new contract for Yeager or any of the other coaches. “He’s still under contract,” Perrone said.
Yeager’s tenure as football coach has generated controversy since his hiring in 2008 when he was selected over other coaching applicants with more experience. His teams have had three-consecutive losing seasons. Several members of the football team and parents attended Thursday’s meeting, but declined to comment.
In addition to Perrone, the athletic council consists of the superintendent, high school and middle school principals and the district’s athletic director.
The board meeting took place at Rhodes Elementary School, which earlier this month was without heat due to a leaking gas line. The board approved an emergency payment of more than $37,500 for repairs to the line and the school’s boiler, which were completed that weekend.
In one other item, the board is looking into consulting services offered by the Trumbull County Educational Service Center and the Ohio School Boards Association as it begins its search to replace Adduci at the end of the current year. Adduci announced his retirement at the November board meeting, effective next July 31.