Allegations surround former football coach

Rick Patrick
rick@greenepublishing.com

During the regular meeting of the Madison County District School Board on Monday, Dec. 19, the board heard the results of an audit performed by Mark Buescher and Associates. This is done every year in order to review practices at each of the schools and make suggestions where warranted to help the schools remain on financially solid ground.
One finding in the audit of Madison County High School (MCHS) caused a particularly high level of concern among the board members. It was stated in the audit that “an employee of the school (MCHS) had created a checking account in the employee’s personal name but apparently for school purposes. The employee collected checks which were made payable to the school and/ or on behalf of the school and deposited the funds into this account. The known amount collected was $18,165, of which $3,566 was not used in accordance with District policy and appeared not to be used for the intended purpose. The school discovered the account in January [of] 2022, had the employee close the account and disciplined the employee. The employee did not use receipts and check requisitions for the use of the funds.” School Board Member VeEtta Hagan requested to know the identity of the school employee. Buescher stated that individual identifications were generally not something his firm included in their reports. Hagan insisted and it was revealed the employee was former MCHS Head Football Coach Mike Coe. It was also stated that Coe had been given a written reprimand, which will remain in his record. Coe left Madison in the spring of 2022 in order to take a job in Coffee County, Ga.
“[This] violates so many different things that should happen in school,” said Board Chairperson Carol Gibson. “Anyone who's been in a school system for any length of time should realize you do not open an account and put checks made out to the school in
your account.”
“In terms of the $3,566, those funds are funds that were spent for things other than their intended purpose,” said Buescher. “Everyone can say what they've got to say,” added Hagan. “I'll say what I've got to say; that's stealing.” “My job is to find it and report it,” said Buescher.
“Then it's up to the board to do whatever you feel is appropriate.”
“I've received phone calls about this, very concerned phone calls,” said Gibson. “They want to know who thinks they are so powerful to do this.” “Nobody should be so powerful as to think they can do things like this,” added Hagan.
The question of how to discipline an employee who commits such a violation of policy was raised. “I think it's very plain that when you collect money on behalf of the district or on behalf of a school, that money has to be deposited into that school's internal account,” said the school district's attorney, Tom Reeves. “I think that's very plain. It's hard for me to imagine that someone believed they could set up an account in their personal name on behalf of the school, using their personal social security number, and think that was appropriate. That's very difficult for me to believe someone would do that. Now the issue you've got with any discipline you might wish to mete out to this employee is that this employee no longer works for the district. So you don't have the opportunity to discipline them, or to fire them or anything else.
They've already left.”
Buescher shared the “Management Response” received by the Superintendent. “As a result of the investigations, the Superintendent met with each principal to discuss board policies that related to internal accounts and reminded them of their obligation to oversee internal accounts,” stated the response.
“They were also told that board policies are non-negotiable. Each bookkeeper was reminded of the Board Policies as they related to internal accounts. In an attempt to keep this type of activity from happening again, the superintendent advised the finance director to seek out an electronic school financial depository account that could be used by each school for their internal accounts. She specifically requested that the system have the capability for the district to review the accounts at any time. The new accounting system has been put into place.
The school bookkeepers received a mandatory two days of training on the new system.
The finance and information system staff also received several days of training to oversee these accounts in the future. The superintendent met with each principal and reinforced that no bank accounts should be opened by any school or by any school employee for the purposes of depositing any money made payable for school activities without express written approval from the board. A designated person within the finance department will continue to meet regularly with school bookkeepers and will continue to randomly review internal accounting procedures and bank accounts in an effort to detect any further violations of handling public funds by school employees.”
The question was raised regarding recuperating any of these funds. Buescher said this would be a “gray area” in terms of whose money it really was if checks were written out to Coe and deposited into an account in his name, who legally owned the money. Many of the deposits into the account were done electronically.
Questions arose about how checks that may have been written out to the school could have been deposited into this account.
“Well, we may or may not get the money back,” said Gibson. “But I'm glad it came to light. To me, it's illegal, you used stolen funds. The bottom line, that's stealing. It's taking away from the children. That money was to go to the schools. The way it was done, it violates so many different rules. This is not a first-year teacher who doesn't know the rules. When you've been in the business for a while, you know the rules. You're expected to follow them and the rules weren't followed here. That bothers me.”
“Keep in mind, this was caught,” said Buescher. “This does happen, including some churches. It happens far greater than y'all realize, I see it.” “I think the biggest takeaway from all this is to
understand that if you are making a donation to the school, it needs to be made to the school or the district,” said Board Member Katie Knight. “Because, at the end of the day, it seems the consensus is, that if this money is made out to an individual, repercussions for this employee are very limited. So, if you're not making funds payable to the school, there's not a whole lot we can do. In terms of this, let's learn how we can protect ourselves in the future.”
“In January of 2022, it was discovered that a mistake had been made in an effort to order state championship football rings,” said Coach Coe in a prepared statement provided to Greene Publishing, Inc. “Contrary to what was stated at the Monday, Dec. 19, school board meeting, an account was never created by me or anybody else specifically for the purchase of
rings.
“Several years prior, members of the Football Booster Club created an account in an effort to provide necessities for coaches and players; i.e., food, clothing, and school supplies for the football players, as well as gas and coaching clinics for the coaches. I was advised to use this account at my discretion for the players and coaches. I was also told that boosters and supporters would deposit funds into this account, which they did.
“After winning the State Championship game in 2021, numerous people made contributions to help with the purchase of the rings and deposited monies in this account. Subsequently, I made a down payment on the rings, and while discussing the down payment with the school finance secretary, I was advised that the purchase needed to be run through the school account, and would need to be corrected.
“We immediately went to Mr. Charles Finley, MCHS Principal, who contacted Superintendent Joseph. A meeting was held with myself, Mr. Finley, Superintendent Joseph, and Ben Killingsworth, Human Resources Director. While it was established that there was no malicious intent, Ms. Joseph, upon the direction of the auditor of the School Board, Mr. Mark Buescher, gave directives in order to rectify the situation and matter. All of those directives were met within 48 hours, and the account was rectified with all monies accounted for. In fact, once all directives were completed, I placed a call to Superintendent Joseph from the finance secretary’s office and confirmed the same, which Superintendent Joseph acknowledged.
Former MCHS Principal Charles Finley can verify every aspect of this statement and the accuracy of what transpired.
“As Head Coach for 12 years at MCHS, we took pride in doing things the right way on and off the field. I always instilled in our players to own up to any mistakes made, fix it, and move forward. That is exactly what I did in this situation. For those who know me best and supported us through the years in Madison, thank you very much. I wish the Madison County School District the best moving forward.”