Newark high school community frustrated over new policy that fires coaches at end of year
By John Ramos
The high school community in the East Bay city of Newark is in an uproar as a result of a new policy by the local school district.
At the end of this school year, all high school sports coaches and their assistants will be fired, with an option to reapply for their old jobs. The district says it’s a new Human Resources policy, but to the coaches and team supporters, it feels like an insult.
It may have been a Saturday, but the Newark Memorial High School soccer team was still hard at work, giving up part of their weekend to play a game on the school field. But so was the team’s coach and that’s why the decision revealed on Thursday had parents scratching their heads.
“It was out of nowhere. It was something that’s just, out of nowhere,” said Jazmin Padilla, who has a son on the team.
She, like a lot of parents and students, is upset by a district announcement that the coaches and assistants on every one of the school’s sports teams will be terminated at the end of their seasons. They will then be allowed to reapply for the position.
“These coaches have been here for so long,” said Padilla. “It’s surprising. It’s a decision that, why all of a sudden are they doing this?”
She said she felt the district owed her an explanation.
“I feel like they owe everybody an explanation, not just myself, but everybody,” Padilla said.
In a written statement, the school’s Assistant Superintendent for Human Relations explained that the purpose is to strengthen its hiring practice for coaches, to complete required vetting and background checks for the sake of student safety.
“I’ve been a teacher here for a long time,” said Gordon Crosby. “I’ve been fingerprinted many times. I’m not sure why we’re all lumped into one group. If there’s some coaches that weren’t fingerprinted or weren’t background checked, I would think that they would start with them first.”
Crosby is the long-time head coach for the swim and water polo teams. He noticed that in the district’s statement, it describes the new policy as “releasing coaches at the end of each season,” and claims it is a common practice in most districts.
“It’s never happened before in my 30-plus years of coaching,” Crosby said, “and I’ve never heard of it happening anywhere else, that coaches have to reapply every single season of every single year.”
Not surprisingly, the sports community is up in arms about it. In a Facebook post, board member Katherine Jones shared a message from Superintendent Tracey Vackar explaining the new policy and its intention. It includes an apology for the way the decision was communicated.
“I recognize that this is a new practice, and while it was brought forward with good intentions, that intent was not clearly communicated. I take responsibility for that,” wrote Vackar.
But what isn’t mentioned is why the policy is changing at this time, and with such urgency. It has people wondering if the district is in some kind of legal jeopardy because of a coach. And by doing background checks on every coach every year, it could cast a shadow of suspicion on anybody and everybody.
“I think they should just let everybody know if there is,” said soccer mom Padilla, “just so nobody is doubting or has any thoughts of ‘what ifs and buts.'”
The district did not respond to multiple requests for comment Friday and Saturday. And while Vackar is taking responsibility for the way the matter was communicated, she won’t be for long.
The district is currently searching for her replacement as she is set to retire at the end of the school year. The district insists it is just a harmless change to its Human Resources hiring policy to ensure the school has a quality coaching staff.
But coach Crosby thinks the opposite could happen.
“I would think that they would have the foresight to see that this is not going to attract quality candidates to a school,” he said, “but it’s going to chase them away.”
