Mt. Pleasant fills athletic director position

Mt. Pleasant Area School Board members hope they have put a controversial issue to rest after hiring Dennis Miscik as the athletic director at their board meeting Monday.

The process began in June when board members hired Dan Szolek to replace Ron Firment, who retired after 16 years of service.

However, a question came up about the job not being a union position, which many percieved was the case when Firment held the position.

"I can't say whether the position was or was not a union position when Mr. Firment held it, but his salary seemed to be based on the steps of the barganing unit," board member David Brooks said, adding that before Firment, the position had been a non-union position.

At that point, Szolek resigned the position and shortly after, the board offered it as a union position to Dennis Miscik, who already was in the union as a teacher within the district.

But Miscik did not accept the position.

"Why he turned down the initial offer, I don't know, but I can only guess it was due to the ambiguity of the union/non-union issue," Brooks said.

From there the job was offered as a non-union position to Mark Mears, who is the high school wrestling coach.

As Szolek did, Mears resigned from the position within days.

The issue was almost settled in arbitration, but the majority of school directors decided not to go that route.

"If that were the case, the issue could have probably extended into March or even April until it was resolved, and I felt we've just been bogged down way too long with this issue," Brooks said.

He and directors Thomas Miscik, Robert Gumbita, Ed Lasko and Denver Hudec voted, before hiring Miscik, to approve a "Memorandum of Understanding with Mt. Pleasant Area Education Association," which was an agreement between the board and the union that the position would be a bargaining unit position.

Directors Ron Albright, Charles Holt, Robert Homonai and Paul Salopek all voted against the action.

As for the hiring of Dennis Miscik, the brother of board member Thomas Miscik, Holt was the lone "no" vote. Salopek and Miscik abstained from the vote.

"As far as hiring Dennis (Miscik), I'm not here to extol his virtues, but if there's an argument out there that the board shortchanged the district by hiring him, I can't agree," Brooks said. "He has been a long and dedicated employee with extensive experience in all areas of athletics.

"It's easy to say that there may be better, more qualified people out there, but this decision was made with the best interest of the district," he continued. "We made the decision with the best information we had. I'd like to think we can move on from this."