The room was filled with parents and student athletes looking to have their voices heard on the decision not to renew the contract of varsity head football coach Cory Tice, during the Montgomery Area School District’s February board meeting Tuesday night.

Board President Paul Stryker announced that while no decision had been made as of yet, the Athletic Committee had received seven applicants for the position, of which five were granted interviews.

There was some misunderstanding as a resident questioned why the Athletic Committee meeting had not been advertised or announced.

Committees are made up of three members and therefore fail to meet the five member quorum, which requires advanced announcement of meetings, Superintendent Daphne Bowers explained.

“You may or may not have done everything you can do or have to do, but there’s obviously more you could do to foster transparency,” resident Brett Luckenbill said, noting that while not required to do so, the board could choose to advertise the meeting if they chose to.

“You could have called a special meeting to hear the parents’ opinions,” he said.

The meeting grew contentious as residents shouted over solicitor Thomas Marshall’s attempts to explain that Tice was not, in fact, fired. Rather, his contract was simply not renewed.

“These are annual appointments, and a decision to open the position was made,” Marshall told the audience.

“Yeah, a decision could have been made to renew it,” Luckenbill countered.

Hiring and firings must be voted on at an open, public meeting, however, the decision was to simply let the contract expire, which does not require a vote, Marshall explained.

“There was no Sunshine Act violation,” Marshall said.

“If there was no sunshine act issue, then why was the notification for the executive meeting tonight changed to include the language that a personnel matter was being discussed,” one resident asked.

“We always reference executive sessions that are held for legal and personnel matters,” Marshall replied.

Though the resident argued that was the first time such language had been used, it is standard practice for executive sessions to be announced in that manner.

Faculty, staff and student-specific issues are typically discussed in executive sessions in order to avoid airing private matters before the public, however a vote to hire, terminate or issue disciplinary actions are voted on at the monthly meetings, with the individual referenced only by employee or student I.D. numbers.

School boards are entitled to do so under section 708 of Title 65 as part of a state statute.

“Executive sessions are for discussion of legal and personnel matters. No formal action was needed to open the position. The position becomes open every year, like all of the coaching positions,” Marshall said.

Asked how other recent athletic staff were approved, Marshall pointed out that those positions were an agenda item, voted on by the board, stressing that there were no votes taken on simply letting contracts lapse because a vote to do so is not needed.

Pressed on how the decision is made on which coaching positions are automatically renewed, Marshall stressed that contracts are never automatically renewed.

“There’s no automatic renewal. They’re all considered by the board at a public meeting. And that’s the same thing that will happen with the football coach. Any position can be opened for consideration of other candidates. That’s how all the positions work,” he said.

The district has individual sports handbooks, and the athletic director handles evaluations at the end of every coach’s season,” Bowers added.

Sophomore Connor Jarrett spoke of a petition he circulated around the school in support of Tice.

“I just wanted you guys to be able to hear everyone’s perspective, and the easiest way I figured to do that was a petition,” Jarrett said, calling Tice, “the best coach that I’ve ever had.”

“He cares about us, not just as football players, but as people. He’s invested in our lives,” Jarrett said.

“This man, from a parent standpoint, has been there for my child and has been the only one that has reached out when he was hurt and looked out for him,” parent Laura McClintock said.

“Please let the voices of the families be heard,” she said.

“At the end of my freshman season, I hurt my knee pretty bad and had to get surgery on it. After my surgery, of course, my mom was there to pick me up. The second person to reach out to me personally was my coach, Cory Tice,” offered nose guard Garrett Ulrich.

If that doesn’t say anything about who Cory is as a person, as a coach, then I don’t know what does,” Ulrich said.

Ruth Little, a member of the Montgomery Borough Council implored the board to consider the impact of losing Tice may have on the students.

“I’ve played for a lot of coaches in my life, but there’s very few that I can see that were good coaches and actually cared for their players and put their safety before winning,” said Austin Luckenbill.

“With my senior season coming up, it’d be a real shame if you guys didn’t hire him back and that it would just be a waste of talent that we have here at Montgomery with the record we just had,” he said.

“I’ve made it very clear to everyone that I will not be coming back as a football athlete if Cory Tice is not re-hired,” Seth McClintock told the board, noting the amount of support from the athletic community.

“I’ve never had a coach that’s been more uplifting. I’ve never had a coach that’s called me, has texted me, or had more influence in my general life,” McClintock said.

“I was in a hit and run car accident and my family was there obviously, but the first person that wasn’t family was coach Cory,” center and defensive end Layne Gingery said.

“It just shows that he’s more than a football coach, and he sees us more as a family than just a football team,”

“When I wrestled and my ankle got fractured, Tice he wasn’t even there, didn’t even know about it, but he still reached out to me and asked me how my ankle was. He’s the only coach that reached out to me, not even the wrestling coach reached out to me,” he said.

“There’s not a coach out there that would do that for another athlete more than the football family that he’s created, and that’s why we all have this strong bond together that we’ve never had in earlier seasons,” Gingery said.