Correction: Any complaint made about an individual state-licensed educator to the Professional Licensure Standards Board in the Arkansas Department of Education remains confidential until it is sent to the Arkansas Board of Education. The process that is used to handle a complaint is public information. The level of public disclosure about the process was inaccurately described in this article.
North Little Rock High School head football Coach Brad Bolding filed a complaint Thursday with the Arkansas Department of Education accusing four school district administrators of breaching the state's ethics code for teachers.
In the complaint, Bolding accuses the school district of taking disciplinary action and ultimately deciding to fire him in retaliation for raising questions about athletic spending and the size of the athletic director's office in a new sports complex.
The complaint names Superintendent Kelly Rodgers, Chief Financial Officer Denise Drennan, Athletic Director Gary Davis and human resources director Gregg Thompson.
In the complaint, the coach also accuses Thompson of not completing 60 hours of professional development training, falsifying documents, bullying people who don't agree with him and leaking confidential information regarding personnel matters.
The complaint filed with the Education Department is the second formal complaint this week made against a district administrator related to Bolding's firing.
On Thursday, Rodgers said neither he nor any of his employees named in the complaints have done anything wrong.
"After reading this, I don't believe there's any validity to any of the claims or any of the code-of-ethics allegations of violation. There's just a lot of misinformation in them," he said, noting that much of the timeline of events listed in the complaint is incorrect.
Rodgers based his comments off a copy of the latest complaint obtained by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. The district hadn't been formally notified of the complaint as of Thursday, and Rodgers said it may never be if the state doesn't believe the complaint is credible.
Rodgers said he couldn't respond further because Bolding is the subject of a pending personnel matter.
Bolding received his latest firing notice late last month. In the notice, the school district accused Bolding of violating purchasing and inventory procedures regarding purchases of more than $230,000.
The district noted that more than $140,000 of the purchases had been made after district officials admonished Bolding in August 2013 for not following district purchasing procedures.
The greater number of the purchases listed in the firing notice were made by the nonprofit NLR Athletic Foundation, which has close ties to Bolding. In 2013 alone, the foundation raised $112,882 and spent nearly $93,000 on "goods and services for the North Little Rock High School Football team," according to the nonprofit's public tax filing.
The district raised questions about purchases made by the foundation in a firing notice issued to Bolding on Jan. 30. Bolding appealed that notice to the North Little Rock School Board. But the day before the appeal hearing, the school district issued the latest firing notice and canceled the hearing.
Bolding has denied any wrongdoing. He has said he will appeal the second termination notice but has yet to file a formal notice as of Thursday.
David Couch, Bolding's attorney, said the "re-firing" triggered the complaint to the Education Department.
"We believe if we had that hearing, we would have been exonerated and Brad would have been back to work," Couch said.
After the second letter of termination, "this was the appropriate step to take. It's becoming clearer and clearer that this was a retaliation and a conspiracy by the administration to fire coach Bolding," the attorney added.
Bolding's complaint will be reviewed by the Education Department's Professional Licensure Standards Board, which can only investigate ethics allegations against licensed educators or administrators.
According to the Education Department's licensing database, Rodgers, Davis and Thompson are certified teachers and licensed administrators. Drennan is not.
A licensure board subcommittee will determine whether complaints warrant an investigation, which typically lasts 90 to 150 days. From there, the subcommittee will rule on whether a violation of the code of ethics occurred.
If the subcommittee rules affirmatively, it then recommends a sanction and accompanying fine that goes to the Arkansas Board of Education for a vote.
The subcommittee can issue a private letter of caution to the educator -- the lowest reprimand -- but the Education Board can levy other sanctions. Those include anything from a written warning to revocation of license.
The subject of the complaint has several opportunities to contest it and appeal any adverse decision.
On Thursday, Wayne Ruthven, the licensure board's chief investigator, said he couldn't confirm that the board had received Bolding's complaint because the process is confidential until such complaints reach the full state Board of Education.
The complaint filed with the Education Department follows a complaint filed with the state Board of Public Accountancy against Drennan.
The accounting complaint was filed by Jay Amberg, president of the NLR Athletic Foundation. In the complaint, Amberg accused Drennan of misappropriating a $7,500 state grant and obtaining the foundation's financial records under false pretenses.
Amberg said the school district also copied a $600 check listed in the foundation's documents that was paid to Montez Peterson, the stepfather of star wide receiver K.J. Hill.
The district has cited the Feb. 7, 2013, check as proof that Bolding or "a third party with [Bolding's] knowledge" gave Peterson the money about a month before Hill enrolled in the North Little Rock district as a sophomore.
A copy of the check was submitted to the Arkansas Activities Association in early February when the school district reported a potential rules violation and voluntarily forfeited 10 football and at least 24 boys basketball games, including the Class 7A state basketball championship, during the 2013-14 academic year.
Amberg has said the school district's action irreparably harmed the foundation and led to one of the foundation's board members being fired from his job.
Drennan has denied any wrongdoing.
School district administrators have acknowledged that the $7,500 grant wasn't spent as intended but noted that the money went toward purchases for the football program. The district will repay the money, if necessary, they said.
Information for this article was contributed by Cynthia Howell of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
A Section on 03/13/2015