Coach asks NLR board for hearing

In a letter obtained by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Friday, attorney David Couch, who represents the coach, asked for an appeal hearing to fight allegations that Bolding violated inventory and purchasing procedures involving more than $230,000.

The North Little Rock School District made the allegations in a firing notice issued in late February, a day before Bolding was scheduled to appear before the School Board to address an initial termination notice from Jan. 30.

Bolding has denied any wrongdoing and said he believes the district gave him the second termination notice in retaliation for him speaking out about concerns he had about spending in the athletic department.

On Friday, Superintendent Kelly Rodgers said that the school district had received the appeal and was working to schedule the hearing. Rodgers said the district planned to hold the hearing in the boardroom at the school district's administrative offices at 2700 N. Poplar St. The room holds about 30 people.

The district also plans to allow the public to view the meeting via a closed-circuit broadcast at the Lakewood Middle School mini-auditorium a few miles away. The auditorium seats about 200.

In an interview, Couch said he will push for the district to change its plan and move the hearing to a larger room.

"There's no excuse for it to not be put in a larger venue. People want to be there. They want to show their support. They want to feel like they're participating in their community, and stuck in a remote venue watching on TV is not the same," Couch said.

The coach's appeal comes nearly two months after school district administrators decided to fire him. Since then, several members of the North Little Rock community have pushed to discuss the coach's firing before the School Board. Facebook, Twitter and prep sports blogs also have lit up with posts supporting the coach.

Much of the public attention has focused on the school district's decision to forfeit 10 football games and 24 boys basketball games from the 2013-14 academic year. The forfeits resulted in the school having to give back its Class 7A boys basketball state championship from that year.

In documents filed with the Arkansas Activities Association and in Bolding's firing letter, the district said Bolding violated the association's rules on recruiting, specifically contact he had with the family of star wide receiver K.J. Hill.

The district has 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.

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.

The school district also has accused Bolding of violating district procedures regarding equipment purchased by the NLR Athletic Foundation.

In 2013 alone, the nonprofit booster group raised $112,882 and spent nearly $93,000 on "goods and services for the North Little Rock High School Football team," according to its public tax filing.

School district officials have declined to discuss any of the allegations made against Bolding, saying they couldn't comment on a personnel matter.

On Friday, Couch said he plans to dispute the district's allegations, saying he has documentation showing that the majority of the equipment purchased by the foundation was listed on the school district's inventory.

"They knew it was there. They had an inventory of it. ... They knew it was there because the athletic director saw it," Couch said.

Couch also said he doesn't believe Bolding violated any district purchasing policies because the purchases were made by the outside foundation and not with school district money.

In addition to contesting his firing, Bolding and the NLR Athletic Foundation also have filed formal ethics complaints against school district administrators.

The foundation has lodged a complaint with the Arkansas Board of Public Accountancy against Denise Drennan, the school district's chief financial officer. Bolding has 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 raising questions about athletic spending and the size of the athletic director's office in a new sports complex.

School district administrators have said they can't comment on the allegations made in Bolding's complaint because of his pending firing. But the administrators have denied acting unethically.

Couch also has criticized the school district's decision to reissue the firing letter, saying it wasn't based on any new information and unnecessarily dragged out the proceedings.

"If the school district had gone ahead with the originally scheduled hearing, then this would have been over. But they decided to pull it down and reissue it," Couch said.

On Friday, Rodgers said 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 only present evidence of allegations outlined in a teacher's formal termination notice.

"We had new information. Our attorney Jay Bequette recommended that we make that change based upon the information. ... That is the truth. That is the reason that we did that regardless of what the social media and some media outlets are saying," Rodgers said.

A Section on 03/21/2015

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