A tense Jim Thorpe Area School District board of directors meeting ended Wednesday night with current head coaches for fall sports receiving permission to begin offseason workouts.

The decision came after the board pulled an agenda item “to open up and advertise for all fall and winter coaching positions for the 2023-24 school year.”

“Removing this from the agenda tonight will give the board a further opportunity to look at a policy to put in place regarding the rehiring process,” Board President Scott Pompa said.

When coaching reviews were conducted at the conclusion of the fall sports season each coach was informed at that time the district was considering opening up positions.

There was disagreement Wednesday night however on whether that also meant coaches should not be involved in any offseason workouts.

“I had athletes asking me can you come work with me,” Craig Zurn, an assistant Jim Thorpe football coach said. “I had to tell them I don’t know because I have no idea if I’ll be your coach next year. It’s not fair to leave these kids in limbo.”

Pompa said while it was made clear that Jim Thorpe may open up all of its coaching positions, no existing coach was fired by the board and the status of offseason workouts boiled down to a miscommunication.

“We never instructed any coach not to begin offseason workouts,” Pompa said. “I don’t know where that came from.”

High School Principal Tom Lesisko, who sat in on those end of season meetings, said coaches definitely left unclear regarding their future.

“Every coach felt their job was up in the air,” Lesisko said. “They were left hanging.”

Frank Miller, Jim Thorpe’s head track and field coach and an assistant football coach, said school policy forbids them from working with current student athletes if they are not currently employed by the district.

“Why would anyone give nine-plus hours of time from their family if you don’t know if you are going to be rehired,” Miller said. “I’ve been coaching for 17 years, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable working with a student athlete if my status as a coach was up in the air.”

Though fall coaches still haven’t been formally hired by name for the 2023 season, Pompa said they should move forward.

“I believe at this stage, the coaches are coaches until a new policy goes before the board,” he said. “If you’re a coach today, you coach today. If you’re a coach tomorrow, you coach tomorrow.”

Gerald Strubinger was the lone director to vote Wednesday night against allowing offseason workouts to begin for fall sports teams.

“I don’t believe any of our administrators should be head coaches of any sports,” Strubinger said.

While Strubinger didn’t cite anyone by name, head varsity football coach Mark Rosenberger is an assistant principal at L.B. Morris Elementary School.

The vote to begin fall workouts under the existing fall coaches was championed Wednesday night by Superintendent Robert Presley.

“I don’t think we should be cutting coaches off this close to the next season,” Presley said. “They should be allowed to continue. They make about 10-cents an hour when you factor in all the time they put into this.”

Dom Madera, who graduated in 2020, said if it wasn’t for Rosenberger and Miller, he probably would not have stayed in Jim Thorpe.

“They meant so much more to me than just a coach,” Madera said. “I don’t think it’s fair to the student athletes to leave the coaches in limbo. Who are we supposed to turn to if we have a question? How are we supposed to get better?”

District athletic committee chairman T.J. Garritano said a policy opening up coaching positions for 30 days at the conclusion of their respective seasons would, “fall in line with every other district in our county.”

“We don’t have a rehiring policy and we are about the only ones,” he said. “This is not going away. It is not saying that we are not going to rehire coaches. We just need a policy in place to do so like every other district has.”