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PIERCETON - It was over before it began.
With a vote of two-to-one Monday night, Whitko's school board approved Steve Pickett as a new English teacher and boys basketball coach at Whitko High School, effective Aug. 16.
Pickett is now an assistant coach at Carroll High School in Fort Wayne.
One of the issues that made Pickett's hiring controversial was that Bill Patrick, who coached boys basketball at WHS for 29 years, also was a candidate for the job.
Early in the school board meeting - which began 20 minutes late because of a prolonged board executive session - patron Stan Frantz asked the board to hire Patrick back as head coach.
He also said he had met Pickett at an AAU basketball game June 5, when Pickett introduced himself as the new high school basketball coach. Frantz said Pickett told him he already had been offered the job, and the school board's vote was "only a formality."
Frantz said he talked to high school principal, Larry Stoner, and school superintendent, Dr. William Worl, who said Pickett had not been offered the job and was making assumptions on his own. He then called Pickett, Frantz said, who said he had been offered the job and then called back and told to be quiet about it.
The board had no response to Frantz's statements.
The boys basketball coaching position was not discussed by the board in the public meeting. Pickett was listed on the agenda as one of a long list of personnel items, including resignations, terminations and employment actions.
Marie Trump moved, and Deb Collier seconded, that all personnel items be approved as a group. Richard Deckena abstained, and Larry Long voted against the motion.
In response to questions from patrons who contended that the board decided before the meeting who would be coach, Trump first said the issue was not discussed at the executive meeting preceding the public meeting. She later said the board did discuss who should fill the coaching position, but they did not decide who would vote in what way.
Worl said a committee of seven people ranked eight candidates for the coaching position, and that their consensus was Pickett.
Two of the committee members, he said, were present at the executive session before the public meeting.
When asked why the position was offered to Pickett before the board's official vote, Worl said, "There is no coach, no teaching position, filled until this body makes a decision."
The board declined to name the members of the recommendation committee.
In other business, the board heard from Roger Carr, FFA adviser, who announced that Stephanie Warner, 1999 WHS graduate, was elected the state FFA secretary at last week's state convention at Purdue. He also said Liza Moore of Whitko took first place in public speaking and will represent Whitko and Indiana at the national convention later this year in Louisville, Ky.
Whitko's livestock team took third place at the state convention, Carr said, and second place in dairy.
The board also appointed Bill Hoppus, principal at South Whitley Elementary, as the safety officer for the school corporation. The position will be funded with a $2,000 grant from the state.
A public work session was scheduled for 6 p.m. July 19 to discuss the budget. The work session will be followed by an executive session from 7 to 8 p.m., and a public meeting will follow at 8 p.m.
