Bolding’s hearing set today

Coach appealing NLR termination

North Little Rock High School head football Coach Brad Bolding.
North Little Rock High School head football Coach Brad Bolding.

The hearing will be held in the district’s administrative office at 2700 N. Poplar St.

Attorney David Couch, who represents Bolding, tried to get the district to move the hearing to a larger venue so more members of the public can attend, but the district declined. Instead, the hearing will be held in a boardroom that seats approximately 30, according to the district.

Members of the public will be able to watch the meeting via live video stream in Lakewood Middle School’s mini-auditorium at 2300 Lakeview Road, a few miles from the meeting room. The auditorium, which seats 200, and the boardroom will open at 4:30 p.m., an hour before the meeting.

Members of the public will not be allowed to comment or participate in the meeting, which district officials say could last several hours.

North Little Rock attorney Paul Blume will serve as the hearing officer and will oversee the agenda.

Bolding has received two termination notices since the beginning of the year. He received the first termination notice Jan. 30 and was to have an appeal hearing Feb. 26, but the district submitted another termination notice Feb. 25.

North Little Rock School District Superintendent Kelly Rodgers said last month that the school district sent the second firing letter so it could introduce new evidence at Bolding’s appeal hearing and still abide by the requirements of the Arkansas Teacher Fair Dismissal Act, which allows school districts to present only evidence of allegations outlined in a teacher’s formal termination notice.

Bolding asked for a public appeal hearing to fight allegations that he violated inventory and purchasing procedures involving more than $230,000. The school district made the allegations in its firing notices.

In the second notice, the school district noted that more than $140,000 of the purchases had been made after district officials reprimanded Bolding in August 2013 for not following purchasing procedures.

Bolding has denied any wrongdoing.

The district also has said Bolding violated the Arkansas Athletic Association’s rules on recruiting, specifically contact he had with the family of star wide receiver K.J. Hill. That led the school to forfeit 10 football games and 24 boys basketball games from the 2013-14 academic year, which resulted in the school giving back its Class 7A boys basketball state championship from that year.

In the recruiting allegation, the district cited a Feb. 7, 2013, check from the nonprofit NLR Athletic Foundation as proof that Bolding or “a third party with [Bolding’s] knowledge” gave money to Montez Peterson, Hill’s stepfather, about a month before Hill enrolled in the North Little Rock district as a sophomore. Hill transferred to North Little Rock from Bryant.

Bolding has denied giving Peterson the $600 check. Bolding and Billy Starks, a former NLR Athletic Foundation president, have said Starks gave Peterson the check to pay for supplies for a football-related cookout and other athletic equipment for the team. Peterson was volunteering with the football program at the time, they said.

Last month, Bolding and the NLR Athletic Foundation filed formal ethics complaints against school district administrators.

The foundation filed its complaint with the Arkansas Board of Public Accountancy against Denise Drennan, the school district’s chief financial officer. Bolding filed ethics complaints with the Arkansas Department of Education against Drennan, Rodgers, Athletic Director Gary Davis and Human Resources Director Gregg Thompson.

The complaint to the Education Department accuses the school district of taking disciplinary action and ultimately deciding to fire Bolding in retaliation for questions he raised about athletic spending and the size of the athletic director’s office in a new sports complex.

Bolding, who has coached at North Little Rock since 2007, has not worked at the North Little Rock school since Jan. 16. He received two fiveday suspensions on Jan. 20 and Jan. 26, respectively, from Rodgers.

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