Report: Asst. Bellevue football coach refuses to hand over keys

Last week, Bellevue High School’s assistant football coach Pat Jones was notified that the district would not renew his contract. This week, Jones is fighting back and refusing to turn in his keys.

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“I’m not OK with what is being done,” Jones said, arguing that the district is simply looking for people to blame after an embarrassing investigation. “And, yes, I intend to fight this to the very end. If nothing else, I will plan on making all the people responsible for this decision accountable for it. Because it’s not OK, and it’s bad for kids.”

Jones will not turn over his keys, according to KOMO News. In a letter to the district, Jones’ attorney said that the district was supposed to send a response to them, but never did. Therefore, they consider the initial letter about his termination void.

Not renewing his contract would essentially fire Jones as the district faces heavy scrutiny in the wake of an investigation into its football practices. Head Coach Butch Goncharoff also was notified by the district that it would recommended to the school board that he be terminated. An investigation by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association concluded that the football program at Bellevue High School used a private academy as a diploma mill to get players on the team. It also concluded that coaches were receiving excessive payments during the off-season for jobs related to their positions with the football team.

But coaches argue that the rule the district is attempting to enforce would mean that a range of teachers and coaches would now be barred from other jobs outside of the school.

“If you now enforce this similarly to other coaches and teachers throughout the district, the number of people you would have to terminate would be quite astounding,” Jones said. “That’s not what I want to happen. What I what to happen is to have them realize that everybody else reads the rules the same way that we do.”

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