Softball or School Board? Proposed Policy Change May Force NA School Director to Make Tough Choice

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. 

According to the district’s official minutes, a handful of parents have publicly criticized the board from time to time since 2010 for not enacting such a policy. Five out of the six  of those critics were the parents of two former players, and their players themselves. 

In 2011, the board debated whether to allow Pagone to keep coaching while serving on the school board. At the time, according to the district’s official minutes from the July 13 meeting, solicitor Russ Lucas indicated it was not a legal conflict of interest if a board member is an unpaid coach. Grosheider affirmed that, saying Pagone was not in violation of either the state school or ethics code. In the end, the board voted to reappoint him as softball coach in 2011 and 2012. 

“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 and other members of the community don'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.” 

Under board rules, policies are introduced one month and voted on the following month. Members of the audience were particularly upset that board members Libby Blackburn and Linda Bishop wanted to waive that rule and vote on the policy immediately because coaching decisions are scheduled to be voted on during the July 17 meeting. 

“If the Board is concerned about ’perception,’ it should be very concerned about what took place at the meeting,” said Laurel Schreiber.  “Do Board members fail to see that what happened at the meeting is perceived as nothing more than ‘bare knuckle politics’ given that it comes on the heels of Mr. Pagone's victory in the recent primary election?” 

Pagone, and newcomers Tara Fisher and Scott Russell won both the Democratic and Republican nominations for school board in the spring primary. Incumbent Daniel Hubert won the Democratic nomination, and will face fellow incumbent Thomas Schwartzmier, who won the Republican nomination. 

Lynn Malko and John Harrison said the fact that school board member Daniel Hubert’s wife works at a district elementary school is a much bigger conflict of interest than Pagone being a volunteer coach. 

In the end, a vote to waive a second reading of the proposed policy was defeated after board members Chris Jacobs and Dr. Joseph Greenberg indicated the policy required more review, including whether to “grandfather” Pagone into the policy and make it effective for future board members. 

Asked why coaching was so important to him, Pagone said it comes from being the father of four daughters. 

“I do this because I want to help these young women succeed in life, and I believe there is a correlation between learning how to face adversity and succeed in a sport, and learning how to face adversity and succeed in life,” he said. “The number of former players who continue to reach out to me, long after they have graduated flatters me, and that tells me I have made a positive impact in their lives.”

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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