Longtime volleyball coach victim of "bad policy"

BY CAROLYN THORNTON
Journal Sports Writer

SOUTH KINGSTOWN -After a lengthy debate and an impassioned plea from members of the community on behalf of the previous coach, the South Kingstown School Committee last night unanimously voted to appoint active teacher Jackie Fagan to the position of boys volleyball coach.

Although members of the committee expressed their regrets over not being able to retain longtime coach Vicki Tefft, who started the boys volleyball program at the school - first as an intramural club team in the early 1980s and then as an interscholastic league sport beginning in 1993 - they contended that because Tefft is a retired teacher, they were required by law to post the position and open it up to an active teacher. Fagan is a science teacher at South Kingstown High School.

"This is a policy question. This isn't about Vicki," school committee member Scott Mueller said of the Rhode Island Interscholastic League Hall of Famer, who coached the boys volleyball team to the 2002 Division I Championship.

"It is what we need to do to be in accordance with the statutes of the state and the requirements of the retirement board," South Kingstown Superintendent Robert Hicks said in advising the committee before its vote at last night's monthly meeting, held at the high school library before a full crowd that included the entire boys volleyball team and many of their parents.

According to Section 16-16-24 of the R.I. General Laws, which addresses "Substitute teaching and employment after retirement," any retired teacher or athletic coach may be employed to fill a vacant position "for a period of no more than 90 days." (A typical high school sports season would fall within that guideline.) The statute goes on to say: "Provided, however, that no employment may be offered to a retiree subject to this section after July 1, 2002, unless the employer has made a good faith effort each school year to fill the position with a nonretired employee without success, and certifies in writing that it has done so to the employees' retirement system, and to the bargaining agents of all education unions with whom the employer has collective bargaining agreements."

Tefft, who has hired attorney Harry Hoopis to represent her, disagrees with the school department's interpretation of the statute.

"It doesn't say you must post my job," she said. "It says you must post vacant jobs, and it isn't vacant if I didn't resign from it."

Tefft - who also coached field hockey at South Kingstown for 16 years and was head girls basketball coach for 10 - was similarly removed from the girls volleyball coaching position in 2004. Following the same policy that it does now, the South Kingstown School Department posted the position, Fagan also applied for that job and was subsequently appointed.

Tefft says that she didn't fight that case largely because when she tried to find evidence to support her position, at the time she found none.

She feels she has some now, however, and in her lawyer's presentation to the committee last night, Loopis cited a Superior Court decision in August of 2004 that found in favor of Mount Pleasant High School football coach John Merolla. According to court documents, Merolla retired from teaching in 1999, but had no intentions on stepping down from coaching. However, he was told by the Providence School Department at the start of the 2003 football season that he was no longer the coach. The court decision, which included awarding Merolla back pay for the 2003 season, stated that Statute 16-16-24 did not apply to Merolla because it "refers to a `vacant position' rather than a position currently occupied by a retired teacher." (Merolla, who remains the Kilties' football coach to this day, had coached continuously at the school since 1968 - since 1987 as head coach - even after his teaching retirement.)

Legal counsel for the South Kingstown School Department last night said that in her opinion, the Merolla case turned on the Collective Bargaining Agreement in place between the Providence School Department and the Providence Teachers' Union, which in part states that "any teacher presently holding a position shall retain the position without the necessity of reapplying."

Hoopis disagreed, saying that the Merolla case hinged just as strongly on the fact that the statute had been found violated and should serve as an equally sufficient argument in Tefft's situation.

Although members of the South Kingstown school committee discussed the possibility of postponing its decision, they ultimately decided that they were legally bound to adhere to its policy of seeking an active teacher and approved Fagan's appointment.

Lamenting that the school committee also couldn't allow retired South Kingstown athletic director Bob Cavanagh to continue coaching the Rebels' boys soccer team for the same reason, Mueller criticized Statute 16-16-24 as being "really bad policy" and said the committee needs to continue examining issue.

In the meantime, Fagan will be at the helm when the Rebels begin tryouts on March 16. A former U.S. Volleyball Association All-American and member of the University of the Rhode Island Athletic Hall of Fame, the former Jackie Elmer was a member of the 1976 U.S. East Olympic Team and played professionally in the Italian Professional Volleyball League and with the AVP Beach Volleyball Tour. Her coaching career includes stints at Bryant, Rhode Island College and Middletown High School. She guided the South Kingstown girls volleyball team to the Division I finals in 2005 and the semifinals the following year.

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