By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — An emotional Board of Education hearing Friday on non-renewal of Staples High School tennis coach Kris Hrisovulos’s contract found that school administrators failed to follow procedures in notifying the 14-year coach his contract would not be extended.

But the status of Hrisovulos’s job remained unclear Friday because the board’s decision was based on procedural grounds and not a specific reason for not renewing his contract.

The Town Hall hearing, conducted in public at the coach’s request, was punctuated by shouts of support from the audience. He reacted with tears of relief at the board’s decision.

Hrisovulos had requested a hearing on the non-renewal decision, which is the right of any coach who has been in the position for four years or more, according to state statutes.

After the hearing, Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice said the next step in the Hrisovulos case “would be up to the school administration. We have to consider what happens next.” In an emailed comment later, Scarice said, “The board indicated in their deliberations through consensus that they did not support the non-renewal of the contract for procedural reasons. The administration is considering next steps.”  
 

Administrators’ handling of case faulted

The school board’s decision not to continue with the non-renewal hearing Friday hinged on the word “recommended,” finding that administrators’ notification to Hrisovulos did not make clear that his contract would not be renewed and only “recommended” that course of action.

Communications between administrators and the coach from last spring and fall also noted remediation steps the coach could take, which suggested that he would return to his job, board member Jill Dillon said.

“I don’t really draw the conclusion that this a non-renewal,” Board of Education Secretary Neil Phillips, who ran the appeals hearing, said after the board had examined the notices and letters sent to Hrisovulos. Lee Goldstein, the board chair, did not participate having recused herself.

The school district’s procedures for dealing with employees should be more definitive and not just relegated to an “X” marked in a “not recommended for renewal” box at the bottom of an evaluation form, as was done with Hrisovulos, several board members said.

“We spend $140 million every year on the school district, and 80 percent of it is on employment. We have to have a tighter system” when making employment decisions and notifications, said school board member Robert Harrington. “I think we can do better.”

The meeting started with Board of Education members and their lawyer, Stephen Sedor, leaving the Town Hall auditorium to hold an executive session for private discussions to protect the identity of students who might be mentioned during review of the case, Sedor explained. 

Supporters rally for Hrisovulos

The board’s move into executive session angered some of the coach’s supporters, including former Staples coaches and the majority of the Staples varsity tennis team who attended the hearing.

“It’s cowardice,” Dan Frank, a former tennis coach, said while waiting for the executive session to end. “They made a decision based on no input from the community,” he said.

Many letters supporting Hrisovulos were sent to the school administration.

A GoFundMe page to support Hrisovulos, set up by Jesse Heussner, whose father, Dale Heussner, attended the hearing, had collected more 100 donations totaling nearly $15,500 by Friday’s meeting.  At the hearing, Heussner blamed the coach’s non-renewal on “a parent with a grudge.”

The donation page lists numerous accomplishments by Hrisovulos, including, 2022 finalist for National High School Tennis Coach of the Year, 2022 State Coach of the Year, 2019 Town of Westport Sportsman of the Year and the most winning coach at Staples High School, including eight state championships and five conference championships in his 14 years at the school. He is also the director of tennis at the Intensity tennis club in Norwalk.

“It’s amazing that the Staples High tennis team is recognized across the state and the nation.  That’s because of Kris,” said Marshall Levin, another Hrisovulos supporter attending the hearing. “He’s the best I’ve seen. This [non-renewal] is rewarding the bad behavior of parents.”

Also attending the hearing was Hrisovulos’s father, Dimitri. “How can the school system allow bullying by a parent? I think something should be done,” he said, as the audience waited for school board members to return to the auditorium.

When the school board and lawyers reconvened in public, details of the issues that led to the non-renewal case were not discussed. It apparently involved a player on the tennis team, according to some of Hrisovulos’s supporters. 

Soccer coaches’ contract issue looms

Controversy over the tennis coach’s contract is not the only one confronting school officials.

Several coaches for the Staples boys soccer team, whose contracts were not renewed after this year, also apparently plan to appeal that decision.

The incident at the center of the soccer coach controversy became public earlier this month when a player who said he had an altercation with a coach at a team retreat addressed the Board of Education.

Several school board members on Friday asked if they could see paperwork sent to the soccer coaches who are also contesting their non-renewals to determine if the same wording was used to notify them as in the Hrisovulos case.

However, since that is a separate case, the non-renewal of the soccer coaches’ contracts could not be discussed at Friday’s hearing, Sedor said.

Three other lawyers spoke at the hearing — Edward Lerner and George Guarino, of Westport, representing Hrisovulos, and Sarah Gleason, of Stamford, representing the school administration. 

Scarice did not speak at the hearing.

Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman and has taught journalism at New York and Southern Connecticut State universities.