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Madison schools must rehire four athletic directors, arbitrator rules

The Capital Times  —  6/02/2008 12:21 pm

An arbitrator has ruled that the Madison Metropolitan School District must reinstate the four high school athletic directors who were reassigned in a 2007 restructuring.

The May 30 decision was announced Monday in a press release by Madison Teachers Inc., which filed a grievance on behalf of the four ADs last year after MMSD decided to replace those positions with two athletic administrators who spread their time equally between two schools.

Arbitrator Milo Flaten also awarded full back pay and remuneration to Tim Ritchie of Madison Memorial, Boyce Hodge of Madison West, Rick Raatz of Madison East and Jim Pliner of Madison La Follette.

It is not immediately known if all four will choose to return to their former jobs. All four are still employed by the district. Pliner is the dean of students and baseball coach at La Follette; Raatz has a teaching position at East; Ritchie is a teacher at Jefferson Middle School and is the boys swimming coach at Memorial; and Hodge is the minority services coordinator at West.

Another twist is that Hodge submitted on April 22 an involuntary resignation letter from his position as boys basketball coach at Madison West, claiming that he was being forced out of that job as "retaliation" for fighting his reassignment from the athletic director job. Hodge said he submitted the letter because he said west side athletic director Tim Svendsen and West principal Ed Holmes told him they would otherwise seek non-renewal of his contract as basketball coach.

"This was not a decision based on my performance as coach," Hodge, who went 114-134 in 11 years with the Regents, told The Capital Times in April. "There's no question the testimony I presented as a factor."

School district spokesman Ken Syke told The Capital Times the administration hadn't received the arbitrator's decision as of noon Monday, so no comment could be made until the administration had a chance to review it.

Also unresolved is the job status of Svendsen, who was hired last summer to preside over Memorial and West, and David Kapp, who was brought on to oversee East and La Follette. According to the MTI release, both signed two-year contracts.

Check back to www.captimes.com for updates.

The Capital Times  —  6/02/2008 12:21 pm