Students and parents urge Maple Heights board to reinstate varsity cheer coaches; board moves to executive session

Dozens of students and parents told the Maple Heights Board of Education on June 23 that two varsity cheer coaches should be reinstated, describing the coaches as disciplinarians and mentors who have supported students academically and personally.

Student Kayla Joyner told the board, “My coaches are good people. I didn't say they were perfect. I said they were good people. They have shown me and a lot of other girls growth, prosperity, and showed us discipline. They have not tortured us.”

Several parents and students read statements or spoke from the podium with similar themes. Parent Salisa Bruce read a letter from her daughter, Celia Rose Proust, who described the selection process for the team and asked the board for “the return of the Maple Heights High School cheer team coaches.” Student Mallory Bohanna called the coaches “mother figures” and said they “give everything they have to this team and this school district.” Other speakers said the coaches helped with grades, discipline and life skills.

Board members did not announce a public decision regarding the coaches during the open portion of the meeting. Later in the agenda the board voted to enter executive session; the board’s roll call recorded unanimous votes to move into executive session at about 7:16 p.m. The meeting record shows the public portion ended and the board proceeded into the closed session; no subsequent public action on the coaches was recorded in the posted transcript.

The board’s meeting agenda listed an executive-session item; the transcript records the motion to enter executive session and the roll-call votes but does not include details of matters discussed in closed session. The board did introduce several staff and administrators in the meeting’s later public portion, including new principals and coaches, separate from the public comments.