Valley Parents Air Grievances After Learning Coach Won't Return
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
MENTONE – After 19 years as a coach at Tippecanoe Valley Middle School, Chris Zolman won’t be returning next season – which had parents in an uproar at the board meeting Monday night. Discussion about Zolman led to parents sounding off about other issues they have with the school corporation. James Dunn started the conversation when he asked why the seventh-grade basketball coach was let go. Superintendent Brett Boggs informed him that the board doesn’t discuss personnel matters in a public setting. If Dunn wanted to discuss the issue with him in private at some other time, Boggs said he would do that. The board, however, has to be very careful about what it says regarding personnel in public. Another patron asked if Valley had a system in place when it lets someone go. Boggs said it does, and that concerns usually start with an employee’s supervisor. TVMS Principal Blaine Conley said that was him. At the beginning of each school year, the board is given a list of coaches to approve. Zolman is usually one of those coaches, but will not be for the 2014-15 school year. Since he is a lay coach, there is no contract between Zolman and the school corporation. Parent Lori Miller said Zolman was her son’s coach years ago and he was a good mentor. She said, “It saddens me this has happened. I think you need to look at it again.” “You’re hurting the school system,” said one parent who didn’t state his name. John Zolman, Chris’s father, said, “My son was labeled a liar because you heard something from another source. You’re not going to find someone to replace what my kid did for these kids.” He said an issue with Chris was brought up last year and Chris had to come in and put the “rumor” to rest. “He’s done with it because of what one person wanted up there (on the board) ... You ought to be ashamed for what you guys did to (him).” At the May 2013 school board meeting, according to a May 14, 2013, Times-Union article, Chris Zolman addressed the board about an incident involving a student athlete. In his comments, Chris discussed getting physical with a student during a game, but denied choking or punching the kid. The board did not discuss the incident at that board meeting either. Dunn said Chris goes to other sporting events to support Valley kids, and that Dunn lives in Warsaw but chooses to send his kids to Valley. While he said he doesn’t care for Warsaw, he didn’t like how this situation was handled. “We’re not at liberty to talk about it,” Boggs said. “There’s more than you people know.” After Boggs discussed with parent Todd Hoffman how he handles employees when they fail to meet expectations, parent Chris Morehouse asked, “What do we do with you guys if you don’t meet our expectations?” “The election is coming up,” board Vice President Mark Wise replied. John Zolman then said when state grades for schools come out, Valley is one of the lowest-graded school corporations in the area. He noted that TVMS received an “F,” and now that school’s principal, Conley, is becoming the assistant superintendent. Parent Mike Canada later said the “F” was because of the middle school’s previous administration. “It doesn’t get any better than Mr. Conley. He has my full confidence and support,” Canada said. Hoffman then reminded Boggs of a conversation he had with him about how bad the food was at the high school, but the food service at Manchester was great and he should look into what Manchester was doing. However, he said Boggs never followed up on that. Boggs said Hoffman didn’t ask him to get back to him and he passed the suggestion on to food service. “You guys are letting the school go down the tubes,” Hoffman said. He told the board that if they read Facebook, they would see why so many kids are leaving the school system. He also stated he didn’t understand why they were paying $200,000 for two people to run Valley. Wise said he disagreed that Valley was going “down the tubes.” It’s more complicated to run a school system today than ever before, and there are a lot of state and federal mandates schools must comply with, he said. Julie Canada said Valley keeps changing things like school day ending time and grading at the high school, but doesn’t know if any of its implementations work. She asked the board if it had any data to prove that any changes it made were effective. Rod Eaton, board member, said the school can’t keep doing the same thing if it doesn’t work. He also said Valley didn’t have a choice in some matters because of mandates. She replied she understood that, but, “You as a board have a lot to prove to me that you have the best interest of my kids at heart.” She said there was a wall building between them and parents. Selina Johnston told the board her oldest son, Wes, had two concussions at school, including one happening in football, and lost his memory as a result. One occurred in the fifth grade and the other in seventh. Despite the concussions happening on school property, she told the board she didn’t hear any concern or care from “any of you people.” This year her son has missed 20 days of school and she was told that wouldn’t be held against him. But, she repeated, no one from the board has asked about him. Wise asked if Wes would be making a full recovery. She said she will find out today. Wise later told her the board doesn’t do everything the way people like, and acknowledged it makes mistakes but said it does care. Patron Jeff Tucker asked if the board had a policy on communication via social media between students and teachers or coaches. Boggs said the board recently passed new social media policies and offered to email them to Tucker. Student Calleigh Zolman spoke about the high school lunches, Wes and her father. She said the lunch was bad Monday. Options were a hot dog or a rib sandwich. She ended up barely eating. As for Wes, she said he is one of her best friends right now, but teachers don’t always know when he’s going to have a problem. She said you can tell though if you watch him. She said her dad was “heartbroken” after talking with Conley and Boggs. “Even if you reconsider what you’ve done, the damage is done. I know he was hurt very badly. It’s not just affecting our family, but others as well,” she said. She said her father has mellowed out a lot, though he used to get called “Mr. Hitler.” If the board didn’t like his personality, she said it should have brought that up 19 years ago when he started. After Boggs repeated that there were things she didn’t know about, Calleigh said she knew everything because her father told her mother everything while she was sitting there. The last topic raised was that there are only two nurses for the high school and middle school. Boggs told parents that if the nurses feel they need more help or time at the school, they will let him know.
