Bolding out as NLR football coach, board rules

The North Little Rock School Board voted unanimously early Friday morning to uphold the district's decision to fire head football Coach Brad Bolding during an appeal meeting.

Bolding requested an appeal after he was issued Feb. 25 a second termination notice, which Superintendent Kelly Rodgers said last month was to introduce additional reasons for the firing.

The Arkansas Fair Teacher Dismissal Act requires school districts to address only allegations outlined in a formal termination notice.

The district accused Bolding of violating inventory and purchasing procedures involving more than $230,000, as well as violating the Arkansas Athletic Association's rules on recruiting.

During the hearing, North Little Rock School District Chief Financial Officer Denise Drennan testified that the district's business policies are available online and coaches are trained on proper purchasing procedures during a summer meeting each year.

Drennan said the district came out of fiscal distress in December 2012 after being assigned the status for audit issues. She said she was concerned about Bolding not following district procedures and causing the district to get in trouble during future audits.

District and state policy requires purchases above $1,000 to be inventoried, and that process starts when the district starts the purchase order, Drennan said.

Thompson agreed, and said "even if the money fell out of the sky," Bolding was supposed to notify the athletic director of any purchases that would exceed that amount.

Bolding testified that he was given guidelines on how to use money fundraised by the athletic program but now on how to spend money raised by the athletic foundation.

"You can ask any coach in this district, nothing is clear on how to do anything," Bolding said about the district's purchasing procedures.

Bolding's attorney David Couch argued that a memo issued to Bolding detailed the "punishment" for not following the purchasing procedures would be that the district would not be responsible for paying for those purchases, not termination of Bolding's position.

Couch also presented Bolding's evaluations and Director of Human Services Gregg Thompson agreed that none of those revealed unsatisfactory marks.

The district also said Bolding inappropriately contacted wide receiver K.J. Hill's family, citing a 2013 check written from the nonprofit North Little Rock Athletic Foundation to Montez Peterson, Hill's stepfather, about a month before Hill enrolled at North Little Rock High School.

Bolding and Billy Starks, a former North Little Rock Athletic Foundation president, have said Starks gave the check to Peterson for supplies purchased for the football team when he was a volunteer.

This led the district to forfeit victories from 10 football games and 24 boys basketball games from the 2013-14 school year, which caused the school to give back the Class 7A boys’ basketball state championship from that year.

Couch questioned district administrators about why they didn't provide additional information to the Arkansas Athletic Association to try to avoid a self-imposed violation.

Rodgers said that AAA Executive Director Lance Taylor advised the district that this was a recruiting violation.

"You can self report or we can take the trophy...and it would be in your best interest to self report," Rodgers said Taylor told him.

North Little Rock Athletic Director Gary Davis was mentioned during almost every testimony but did not testify at the hearing.

Bolding has denied any wrongdoing, and Couch said they plan to appeal the termination decision in circuit court.

Bolding received the first termination notice Jan. 30 and had an appeal hearing set for Feb. 26, but that hearing was canceled when the district issued the second notice.

The head football coach, who has been at North Little Rock since 2007, has not worked since Jan. 16, when Rodgers gave him two five-day suspensions, on Jan. 20 and Jan. 26.

See Friday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full coverage.