Former Hempfield Area coach to get $14,000 from district
Taxpayers in the Hempfield Area School District paid almost $22,000 to settle a grievance filed by the district's former basketball coach, who was fired last year.
The district will pay Bill Swan $14,000, according to the settlement.
Attorney Carl Beard of Altoona, who represented the district, was paid nearly $7,800 from March 2009 to last month, a review of legal bills shows.
The district released the information yesterday in response to a Right-to-Know request filed by the Tribune-Review.
School directors last week refused to release details of the settlement, citing a gag order. The settlement says the agreement is "confidential to extent permitted by law."
Under state law, any expenditure of public money must be approved in public and is considered a matter of public record.
Under the terms of the deal, Swan agreed that he will never apply for a coaching position in Hempfield and will not file an age discrimination lawsuit against the district.
The district says in the agreement that it settled the grievance to avoid the "need for time-consuming and costly litigation."
The deal "represents a compromise" and is not an admission of guilt or liability by either party. The board approved the settlement Sept. 20, the night before two days of arbitration hearings were to begin.
Swan is a guidance counselor at Hempfield and serves as the assistant head basketball coach at Greensburg Central Catholic.
The bills submitted by Beard indicated he spent time meeting with district administrators and interviewing parents of former players, including Leslie Perry, the mother of Nate Perry, and Kim Stough, the mother of R.J. Thomas.
Perry and Thomas were benched at the end of last season, prompting complaints by their parents to the school board, which precipitated Swan's dismissal.
Perry plays basketball at Youngstown State University in Ohio; Thomas is on the California University of Pennsylvania football team.
According to Beard's invoices, he interviewed Lisa Brose, a school district trainer; Rob Stauffer, Swan's assistant coach; Brian Holt, the team's scorekeeper; Robert Highlands, R.J. Thomas' grandfather; and Robin Highlands, his aunt.
He interviewed Athletic Director Greg Meisner, who in 2008 prepared a 13-page evaluation of Swan for the board. Subsequently, Swan was required to take an anger-management course.
The district is 0-4 when it comes to grievances filed by former coaches.
Swan's predecessor at Hempfield, Tom Traynor, was fired along with wrestling coach Bob Gordon and football coach Bo Ruffner. In each case, an arbitrator ruled that there were no legal grounds for dismissal.
