Niko Sila is officially out as the head high school football coach at Green Bay East in Wisconsin. He was formally fired by the school board by a vote of 5-2 after a lengthy, five-hour meeting.
This decision was met with backlash from players, students and parents alike.
The high school football coach does not plan to fight the ruling any further at this time. However, he does intend to run for a position on the school board next year. Wouldn’t that be something?
What did Niko Sila do?
Sila worked at Green Bay East High School as the manager of student engagement, attendance and advocacy and the head football coach. His primary job was to track attendance. That will be important.
The school placed Sila on administrative leave just a few hours before kickoff on Oct. 17. This saga took more than a month to reach a conclusion.
Students tried to hold a protest in favor of Sila shortly after his leave was announced, but it was not as well attended as the organizers had hoped because the school allegedly discouraged participation with the threat of punishment. It told students on sports teams they could lose their spot. Other students claimed that their teachers prevented them from leaving the classroom for the walkout.
The mysterious leave of absence continued over the next few weeks as details of the specific allegations made by the school board against Sila started to emerge. His wife said at the time that he was choosing to fight some against some of the claims made against him. The rest, she said, were taken out of context.
A back-and-forth between Niko Sila and the Green Bay East School District continued. They held multiple meetings. There was a lot of discussion. There was a lot of dissension.
What did Green Bay East allege?
Although the school and the district are not allowed to disclose the exact list of allegations against Sila, it started with eight key points. Two were added later. They include:
- Divisive or unprofessional comments about staff or administration
- Divisive or unprofessional comments toward staff
- Intimidation of colleagues
- Intimidation or manipulation of students and lack of professional boundaries
- Use of profanity with students
- Inappropriate physical consequences during football practices
- Lack of training and supervision of monitors and providing incorrect attendance processes and procedures to monitors
- Giving rides to students in his personal vehicle
- Violation of the district’s no-contact order by communicating with students while on administrative leave
- Inappropriately updating and altering student attendance
The two most important allegations at the center of Green Bay East’s investigations include the “improper management of student attendance” and “giving rides to students in personal vehicle.” Keep that in mind.
Sila’s wife said her husband was told not to give rides to students on more than one occasion. However, she contends there was not a specific policy on which to base the demand.
As for the attendance issues, Sila’s representation claimed any incorrect input of attendance was due to a lack of training in his very loosely defined role. He had done the exact same thing the exact same way for all three years he was employed by the school.
“For three years, Niko consistently followed established practices, notified supervisors of changes and received no warnings or corrective feedback,” Stephanie Ortiz said.
There was never any favoritism. Nothing like that.
Sila was offered the option of resignation with a “substantial severance package” on Oct. 30. He officially declined the offer on Nov. 6.
The high school football coach was terminated by a vote of 5-2
The Green Bay Area Public Schools Board of Education met for nearly five hours on Wednesday night. An attorney spoke on behalf of the district. A legal advocate spoke on behalf of the head football coach.
The Board of Education ultimately voted 5-2 in favor of firing Niko Sila.
He was terminated based on two areas of misconduct: Intentional falsification of student attendance records and unauthorized transportation of students without complying with board policy.
The school district says Sila deleted “accurate and official student absence records” from the district’s student record systems on more than 140 occasions from Sept. 5 to Oct. 15 of this year. The falsified records supposedly allowed ineligible athletes to compete in athletic competition, including as many as 11 football players during a game on Oct. 11.
“These actions resulted in false student attendance records that were relied upon for athletic participation eligibility, and School and District reporting requirements for the purpose of state report cards and a federal grant that East currently receives; and interfered with system absence notification to parents, and prevented attendance interventions to be triggered and implemented.”
The district also said that Sila refused to complete the required vehicle inspection and driver’s background check before he transported students in his personal vehicle. Here is the full statement:
The district also contends Sila failed to comply with investigatory rules. He was told not to contact any students or administrators at the high school but did so anyway.
What’s next?
Board Trustee Andrew Becker was one of the two votes against termination.
“I have always had a certain bar for, for termination and it’s just very high and there were certain pieces that were questioned and it didn’t reach that level for me, and it was judgment call that I made, that I had to vote no,” he told Fox11 News.
Lynn Gerlach voted in favor.
“This was not easy, and you know it’s true there were a lot of kids who feel Niko did a lot of good for them, but in the end, you need to look at the regulations, and you have to look at the policy and it was very difficult. I didn’t enjoy it a bit,” she said.
They may soon be joined by Niko Sila himself. He said at the meeting that he plans to run for school board next year. In the meantime, he plans to launch his own youth mentorship program.
It is unclear as to whether this could get litigious. I don’t think so.