Charges of conflict of interest in the hiring of the girls basketball coach at Les Cheneaux Community Schools were dropped during the Tuesday, July 11 meeting of the school board, after past and present hiring practices were reviewed and future procedures were proposed. The board took no action on the proposals.

The complaint centered around how the new varsity girls basketball coach, Sonja Duncan, was hired. Paul Griffin, one of the two applicants for the position, attended the Tuesday night meeting, as did Athletic Director Dave Duncan, and High School Principal Randy Schaedig, who said he ultimately hired Mrs. Duncan.

When coach Tom Wilson retired from the job, Mr. Schaedig explained, "Dave did an internal posting, and no one was interested, so I put an ad in the newspaper."

Mr. Griffin applied, but, he said, didn't get interviewed for the job.

"I felt that, with what has transpired between Dave and Paul, it wouldn't have been what's best for the program." Mr. Schaedig said, alluding to a previous disagreement between Mr. Duncan and Mr. Griffin.

Mr. Duncan told the board, "Unfortunately, Paul and I don't talk anymore," as a result of the disagreement.

Mr. Schaedig said he did not interview either applicant, and Mr. Goehmann added that there is no policy that obligates the district to interview anyone. Mr. Schaedig admitted he failed to call Mr. Griffin, and said, "I'll take the blame for that."

Trustee Dave Murray said he is more concerned about "the conflict

of interest, and not so much the decision that was made," by Mr. Schaedig.

He asked how Mr. Schaedig, as a football coach under Mr. Duncan's supervision, will be able to supervise Mrs. Duncan, the wife of Mr. Duncan, without there being a conflict of interest. He noted that the district's policy regarding conflict of interest "says our standards are extremely high."

"We have a policy in place, but how do we show there is impartiality," he added. "As a public board, we need to assure the public with confidence that conflict of interest isn't going on. Even the appearance of a conflict of interest is a problem."

Mr. Schaedig replied that in small schools, situations where multiple family members are hired at a district will continue to arise, and Mr. Duncan cited a handful of

districts in Michigan where more than one family member works at a district. Over the past 10 years, Les Cheneaux Community Schools has had at least two instances where married couples were working at the school at the same time. At least two trustees said those situations were not comparable to this.

"But I feel as long as we keep the lines of communication open, we should be able to work through it," Mr. Schaedig said.

Mr. Burrows said the board has not adhered to the conflict of interest policy before, and that if it was going to use the policy, enforcement probably should have started when Dave Duncan's father, John, was the High School Principal and Athletic Director at the same time Mr. Duncan was coaching for the district.

Mr. Goehmann added that the board has not previously had a

problem with Mr. Schaedig being supervised by Mr. Duncan, and said he also offered to make the decision to hire a girls basketball coach if Mr. Schaedig "felt uncomfortable with it."

Trustee Tony Hakola reiterated a suggestion he made at the previous meeting to bring in more than one person, perhaps a hiring committee, to make the decision in rare situations where a district employee is considering a spouse or other family member among the candidates for a job.

Mr. Griffin said he supported Mr. Hakola's idea of a committee, and said he is now "fine" with the hiring procedure for the girl's basketball coach, after hearing everyone's opinions.

"I accept Randy's apology," he also noted.

In other news, trustees set a special goal-setting meeting for Monday, August 7, at 6:30 p.m. Each board member was asked to bring three suggestions to that meeting.