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At the Aug. 8 Snowflake Unified School District Governing Board meeting, residents spoke up both against and in support regarding the current coaching situation for girls’ volleyball during call to the public.
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Those in attendance included a few families with students who had concerns and several individuals that were in support of the coaching staff. Though no names were mentioned, student Lanie Penrod addressed the council expressing the challenges she faced regarding the coaching staff. “I just wanted to talk about how last year’s season was completely different from this year’s season. We went further, yes, but it wasn’t better. We had a different coaching staff last year (and) though we didn’t win as many games, we had more fun, we were taught more, we were respected. It was a completely different feeling than it was this year. We weren’t respected as girls. We are students and we should be the ones respecting our adults and we tried but we were never shown the same respect that we gave. We always feel that we were always minimized whenever we had concerns, they just looked over us.”
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Community member Diane Reynolds also spoke on the matter in support of the coaching staff. “My family has been in education and athletics for over 40 years and I’ve seen a lot, some good and some bad. This is my first board meeting and this is not what we do but I thought it was necessary to stand up to this. This group does not represent me, the softball community, also the majority of girls in the softball program.
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“There are many in our area that are great fans, supporters of this staff and administration as witnessed by the overwhelming support and turnout of the state tournament. The nonsense from this group requires a lot of time, a lot of hate in your heart, and a lot of crazy,” she stated, adding that the actions of the group “put a dark cloud over our community.”
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Continuing, Reynolds said, “Throughout this entire season, they have embarrassed our school and our towns by their constant yelling and coaching from the sidelines. Anyone attending a game would be aware of this fact, making it very difficult to communicate and coach the girls on this team. Even after all the hateful actions, of which there are many, many more, the girls of these parents still play,” she continued.
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At the end of the discussion, the council voted to discuss further in executive session but did not discuss further with the public when returning to regular session.
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In other business, Allison Hephner with Navajo County Community Project Management Services presented results from a community health needs assessment conducted by the county.
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“There’s a 100 percent correlation with adverse childhood experiences as children are growing up that end up becoming chronic disease, cancer, substance abuse, mental health and poverty.” Hephner claimed that all these health concerns can be avoided through family-centered support for schools that included youth mentorship programs, parent support programs and partnerships with schools.
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“We’re very lacking in this in our community and the only way to actually foster this type of relationship is to build a relationship with our schools,” said Hephner.
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Also discussed at the meeting was a contract for a speech pathologist and the Northland Pioneer College Intergovernmental agreement for dual enrollment with both items approved.
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