BOULDER — After a 6-1 vote to rescind the original non-renewal and a 5-2 vote in favor of renewing his contract, Clint Layng will remain the head football coach at Jefferson High school following a special school board meeting on Monday night.
"I'm more motivated than ever to be the best coach possible. I love my team, I love my kids. You know, former players, current players, all the way around. I'm just — I've lost a lot of sleep, but I feel good about the support," said Layng after the school board voted to keep him on.
Justin Willcut, Dani Morris, Larry Rasch, Bryher Herak, Kyrie Marks-Russ, and Cami Robson voted to rescind the original motion, Buster Bullock was the only member of the board to dissent. Willcut, Herak, Marks-Russ, Robson and Bullock voted to renew Layng's contract; Morris and Rasch dissented on that vote.
Layng was originally let go from his head coaching position following a regularly scheduled school board meeting in April.
Morris noted she voted against Layng's renewal on April 19, based on information she had received from members of the community. Morris also said she hopes all parties involved can work together to prevent something like this from happening again.
"I think there is a flaw in the process and I hope we can fix that for the future so this type of situation does not ever occur again. I have faith the administration and the board will work together to fix any gaps in communication between coach's evaluations, the complaint process, and the renewal of contracts," said Morris.
Rasch said at Monday's meeting he voted to not renew Layng's contract because of a lack of communication between the school board, the school's administration and Layng.
The first motion to be voted on Monday was to rescind the original non-renewal motion filed in April. That motion passed with only one dissenting vote from Bullock. Bullock said in one of the board discussion portions of the meeting, that the reason he originally voted to not renew, and then again to not rescind the original vote, was to open a dialogue.
"I want you to be our coach, this tonight is where I wanted to get, so we can have a discussion with some expectations. I think in this process, in my opinion and my opinion only, this process was very good for all of us and I think it needs to go on," said Bullock. "I do not follow the administration when I think they are on the wrong path, and I will not. And I think as far as consistency goes, I've been on the board for three years, the last two times coaches have come up I have said, we need to have some expectations and this was my expectation."
Following the vote on the first motion to rescind Layng's non-renewal, the board motioned to renew Layng's contract which was met with support from current and former players and a majority of support from members of the Boulder community and Layng's peers.
"I have two years left to play for Jefferson High and I don't want anyone else coaching me other than Coach Layng," said sophomore football player Luke Mondloch.
"The coach's handbook and the coach's code of conduct and the Jefferson handbook clearly state, the coaches are supposed to be part of the communication with the family. I've never had a coach call, talk, speak to me. Not once," said Keith Shultz, a member of the community who has had three children that are attending, or have attended, Jefferson High school. "The coach's [code of] conduct is clear. If the coach doesn't do what this says — he signs it, is a contract in itself — if he does not meet these requirements and has not been informed by the administration, because they're at the games — I haven't missed the game home game, and I have seen many violations of this personally. I won't go off of what the kids say, but I also do hear that the kids, there's a lot of lack of responsibility in this school, not just by the coaches, but by the administration and the teachers and everyone else and I think that needs to be addressed by this board, not just the coaching, because if no one's notifying the coaches of the problems, then there is a problem."
"If we fired every coach or teacher to use profanity, we would have absolutely no coaches and probably half the amount of teachers. So, that's to be across the board, not just a football coach. The only coaches that have ever contacted me about my child's mental health is Sarah Layng, and Clint Layng, and Josh Morris, I have spoken with as well. So out of the whole my five years at Jefferson, they're the only ones that have checked in on my kid's mental health," said Mandy McMaster.
Following public comment and board discussion, the School Board voted to renew Layng's contract and passed the motion with a narrower margin than the first motion of 5-2.
"It just means the world that I've had an impact on kids and as a coach, you try to do the best you can, and I believe that I do," said Layng. "You know, you're never going to make everybody happy, but all in all, I know that I've made an impact on kids."
