School board will not revote on coach hiring

The Rockville Centre Board of Education held an emergency meeting Monday night to respond to the protests that followed the trustees’ decision not to rehire South Side High School’s county-championship-winning girls’ varsity soccer coach, Jennifer Abgarian, and her assistant, Chris Aloisi — but a revote is not in the works.

Dozens of people gathered in the school’s auditorium, including most of the girls’ soccer team, and the tension was palpable when the board made its way out shortly after 8 p.m. The decision that has generated so many complaints is believed to be the first in district history in which a coach was not rehired despite receiving approval from the superintendent and athletic director.

Before the meeting was opened to comments from the public, the board’s attorney, John Gross, explained that the trustees — who had discussed the matter at a closed executive meeting on Monday morning — could not speak publicly about an employee (Abgarian is a full-time teacher in the special education department, while Aloisi is a volunteer). That didn’t stop many soccer players, parents and coaches from other SSHS teams from voicing their opinions.

“As a member of the girls’ varsity soccer team, I have not felt very supported by our school board and other community members,” rising senior Brenna Haynes said, adding that since the 2019 controversy over the coaches began she and many of her teammates had been cyberbullied by other students and parents in the district.

That 2019 controversy involved claims that the coaches were favoring and picking South Side team members that they coached as part of a travel team in East Meadow.

Chris Webster, a South Side teacher and cross-country coach for 22 years, expressed his opposition to the decision, citing the precedent he believed it would set. “You could be listening to me right now, and when I finish you could simply push me out with a vote,” Webster said. “It won’t matter what the parents think, my athletes think, the community thinks or what the athletic director recommends.”

The vast majority of those who spoke favored keeping Abgarian and Aloisi. Eventually, however, resident Kieran Conlon stepped up to the microphone and expressed his support for the board’s decision. In 2019, Conlon noted that Aloisi was accused by some soccer players’ parents of having a conflict of interest and of favoring some team members over others, but a district investigation found no grounds for the claims. Still, Conlon said he was pleased with the trustees’ action.

“This has nothing to do with these special girls,” he said. “They should be very proud of their accomplishments. But this has to do with the ethical standards and integrity demanded of those who are given the privilege to teach and coach in this district.”

Though he didn’t explain either claim, Conlon has been vocal on the issue since he brought it to the board’s attention in 2019 and again last year, urged the trustees to take action against a “cancer” in the Athletic Department. Conlon claimed that many students were hesitant to come forward out of “fear of retaliation.”

Karen Parker, a member of the Athletic Advisory Committee that was formed in 2019 to address the controversy surrounding the soccer coaches, noted that the board approved the policy on conflicts of interest created by the committee, 4-1.

“I think the board has the right to vote the way they deem to vote,” Superintendent June Chang said.

Trustee Tara Hackett, who voted in favor of keeping the coaches, spoke directly to the attendees. “I don’t take any of it back,” she said. “I’m sorry this happened. And I hope we can move forward, because we are going backward.”

Trustee Christine Ferazani defended her decision to vote against rehiring the two coaches. Ferazani was mentioned in a letter obtained by the Herald from 12 parents of soccer players, who made allegations of “her clear partiality and obvious conflict of interest” in the wake of the vote. She said she had good reason to vote the way she did.

“I made this decision based solely on what is in the best interest of all of the children of Rockville Centre,” she said. “Not a select few, but all.”

Board President John O’Shea said there would not be another vote, and that the decision stood. In the moments before and after the final bang of the gavel, some attendees wondered out loud why the meeting had even been called, prompting O’Shea to respond, “The public asked for this. That’s why we did it.”

Abgarian and Aloisi, who attended the meeting, said they could not comment on the decision, but encouraged the Cyclones to embrace the new season, which is only a month away. Many team members fought back tears outside the auditorium after the meeting convened as they told the Herald what the board’s decision and their coaches, meant to them.

“We are all so disheveled over this terrible decision that’s not in the best interest of the students at all,” captain Christina LiCalzi said. “I don’t even understand why this board meeting even happened if they weren’t going to listen to us.”

With a month to go before the season starts, a new coach and assistant have yet to be appointed.

Frank Van Zant, president of the Rockville Centre Teachers Association, said that the union planned to challenge the decision with a grievance, and added that he hoped the board heard the message of the coaches’ supporters. “A well-intentioned person can’t help but hear the voices of the student-athletes, the parents, community members, and teachers who recognize an injustice,” Van Zant said, “and called out the injustice publicly.”