Former Crivitz School Board members differ on suggested coaching policies

CRIVITZ – Former Crivitz School Board members Sara Roman and Mike Frievalt might have different perspectives on how complaints about coaching should be resolved, but they agree on this: some policies might need to be tweaked.

Here’s where the two, both of whom are Crivitz parents, differ: Frievalt wants Crivitz to put a controversy over high school coaching behind it and move on, while Roman is just getting started trying to address an underlying issue. She said the school board needs training in understanding its purpose, authority and focus on the children.

Roman, who finished Frievalt’s term on the school board until the April election, said she plans to run next year when the one-year seat Sonny Graese was elected to is on the ballot again. Graese received 1,502 votes to Roman’s 1,412 votes in April.

“I want to come back strong. I want to come back knowing not only my rights and responsibilities, but those of the board. I want to start being able to guide the board to where they should be,” Roman said. “I’ve been self training.”

She added that her husband, Damon Roman, also is researching effective school boards.

They want the school to provide equal access to all students, not just those with parents who coach. If their efforts pay off, Damon Roman said, “Years from now there will be girls who will get to do sports who wouldn’t otherwise.”

To implement change, Sara Roman said the board needs training.

The board and the school administration haven’t directly addressed the complaints parents, teachers and students made during board meetings this spring about the athletics program and school meals, Roman said.

Without pressure from parents, the school board would sweep the problems under the rug, Roman added. “The parents aren’t going to give up on it. When I started this eight years ago, no one had our back. This year, teachers who won’t come forward are sharing information with law firms. They’re scared for their jobs,” Damon Roman said. A teacher who spoke at board meetings recently received a nonrenewal, spurring concern among the teaching staff, he said.

Frievalt, a volunteer assistant softball coach who spoke at the April school board meeting, said parents should talk to a coach when they have a complaint. He recommended waiting for 24 hours after an incident to allow for a cooling off period, but advises people to make the complaint during the sports season when the issue arose or within a couple of weeks after it. If people don’t complain, the problems might not be addressed, he said.

“We want at least two coaches or three at any meeting with the coach. We’ve kind of tweaked the policy. We’re being more cautious,” Frievalt said. “If the policy is broken, by all means it needs to be tweaked.”

But, Sara Roman said parents often worry about retaliation. The more coaches at the meeting, the more possible retaliation if the coaches also are teachers or elected officials. The school board seems more concerned with supporting the coaches than the students, Roman said. “It’s a problem when the students aren’t the focus,” she said.

The school board sent surveys to student athletes on a team with multiple complaints, but the school district hasn’t released the responses. “The information gleaned from them wasn’t intended for the coaches. It was intended for the school board to create an action plan,” Sara Roman said. “If you give those to the coach, that coach is also their teacher. They know their handwriting. They can figure out who it was. Those girls were told those surveys were confidential. Now you broke their trust.”

In calling for board reform, Sara Roman said, the school board hasn’t sufficiently addressed the retaliation that’s keeping some from speaking freely.

The fear is compounded by various conflicts of interest, such as coaches who also are teachers, Roman said.

“If a coach is displeased with an athlete, if they choose to retaliate against that athlete and they also have them as a student, they have them in multiple areas,” Roman said.

The problem often is the coach’s conduct, not the players’, parents said. One sent a letter to the school board describing coaches who yelled at players to such an extent and so often the parents couldn’t enjoy the game.

When school leaders also serve on the Crivitz Village Board of Trustees, another conflict of interest can crop up. “If a parent complains to someone in leadership who had the coaches back, and they’re upset, that can bleed over to village issues,” Sara Roman said.

School Board President Amy Grandaw served as village board president until she was defeated in the April election. Crivitz School District Athletic Director Jeff Dorschner served on the village board until April 1. Cory Siebert currently serves on both the school board and the village board. High School Principal Jeff Baumann also serves on the village board. Baumann and Dorschner coach multiple teams.

When Dorschner was on the village board, it presented a significant conflict for Crivitz parents, Damon Roman said. “He was an official and coached multiple teams. If you have a problem with a coach, who do you go to? And if you bring up a complaint, he’s going to sue you. The threat of a suit shuts them up,” Roman said. An attorney who said he represented Dorshner sent a “cease and desist” letter to a teacher who had complained about him, sources said.

The more power the coaches hold, the worse the problem becomes, the Romans said. “The coaches can do whatever they want.

Leadership, as we can all see, does not hold them accountable,” Sara Roman said.

While the school administration says it’s difficult to recruit coaches, Sara Roman doesn’t buy it. “I know there’s other people in the community that would like to have these positions,” she said.

She wants the board to implement board training, training for coaches, anonymous surveys of student athletes for every sport and listening sessions where parents can talk to the board and the board can ask questions to obtain more information.

Damon Roman said parents’ complaints routinely are ignored. “Wouldn’t you think if you were on the school board, you would always side with the student? In my case, they said it was my daughter’s word against the coach’s.”

As for people holding dual roles in the school or the village, Frievalt said, “It’s a difficult situation in a small community. You have to follow the policy or change it,” he said. Frievalt served as police chief for about 28 years.

When a coach also is a teacher or the parent of a child on the team, some people see it as a conflict, while others don’t.

“Every single coach in the whole world does favoritism,” said Marissa Zahn, booster club treasurer and district bookkeeper. Zahn said people are talking about the issue on girls teams. “It’s all on the girl’s side,” she said.

Zahn played volleyball when she was a student in Crivitz, she said, and Mrs. Meyers was her coach. “She was a normal coach, telling us what to do; nothing bad,” she said.

She said her husband coaches their children. “He’s more strict with them and expects more of them. It’s not favoritism at all, it’s them pushing their child,” she said.