Did Bellevue football coaches really do anything wrong?

The Bellevue School District wants to fire its football coaches for running summer football camps that made them a hefty sum. But KIRO Radio’s John Curley wonders what is actually so wrong with that.

Related: Bellevue School District plans to fire head football coach

The coaches run a summer football camp. The Bellevue Wolverines Football Club pay an organization that operates the camps and the coaches are paid by that organization. It’s that income that the school district argues violates policy — that their position was used to make money outside of the district. The district aims to fire Head Coach Butch Goncharoff and Assistant Coach Pat Jones. The coaches have protested this action. In fact, Jones has refused to turn in his keys.

Tom Tangney: It looks petty and ridiculous that an assistant coach who is about to get fired is like, ‘Ugh, I’m not going to turn in my keys’ … Butch Goncharoff and Pat Jones made money outside the realm of the school district. Butch Goncharoff was getting paid $240,000 over the span of like 5 or 6 years.

John Curley: So he had a summer football program, they had 300-400 kids sign up and he got paid like $300-400 per kid. I got no problem with that. If you can run a summer football program and get kids to show up, and you can make $75,000 or $60,000 running the program – good for him.

TC: That’s what the school district has a problem with. What he’s saying is if you kick them out for making money, then any other teacher making money (outside class) should also be looked at.

JC: What if a teacher decides to tutor over the summer? They have students and if they have trouble with math, they can meet them at their house, and they’ll tutor them for $50 for an hour — something like that. What’s wrong with that?

TC: I know a lot of teachers work over the summer. I’m not sure if it’s educational and that’s the difference, but a lot of teachers have second jobs.

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