Softball or School Board? Issue Before North Allegheny School Board Wednesday

The North Allegheny School Board will consider at its July 17 meeting a new policy that would ban school board members from holding volunteer positions that are supervised by a district staff member. 

Currently, the policy would only affect Ralph Pagone, who is the volunteer head coach of the girls’ slow pitch softball team. Pagone is one of three founding members of the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Softball League, which played its first games in 2006. Pagone, the sponsor of the slow pitch program at North Allegheny, presented it to Athletic Director Bob Bozzuto for consideration within the district as a club sport in 2008.  

School Board President Maureen Grosheider asked the solicitor to draft the policy after receiving what she called “a significant amount of criticism from the community” about the issue.

“There has been a perceived conflict of interest,” Grosheider said a few days after the June 26, 2013 meeting. “I think one of the things that I have an obligation to do is to respond to questions and concerns. Frankly I had made a commitment a year and a half ago to bring this policy forward. I’m just trying to keep my commitment at this time.” 

Pagone doesn't see it that way. 

“I think politics are alive and well in the North Allegheny School District,” Pagone said in a telephone interview. “There are a lot of perceptions out there. The reality is nothing wrong has ever happened.”

Click here for a look at the other agenda items which are posted on the North Allegheny School District web site.

What do you think? Should a North Allegheny School Board member also be allowed to be an unpaid, volunteer coach? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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