Madden makes statement about ‘personnel decision,’ but offers no explanation
The Bulldog fanbase is still scratching their heads and wondering why the administration for the Polk School District made a drastic decision last week to send Head Coach Jamie Abrams to an elementary school PE role and open up the job at the top spot on the football team.
What happened? Has the Polk School District lost its mind?
These are questions that were in better phrasing posed by a trio of speakers representing a standing room-only audience on Tuesday evening at the Board of Education’s regular session. Among them current teammates and former Bulldogs showing their support for Abrams after five successful seasons leading Cedartown into playoff contention, three region titles and a state playoff berth.
Among the crowd and watching alongside one of the speakers during the meeting was Nick Chubb, sitting with his longtime strength coach Mike Worthington and other Bulldog alum seeking some sort of explanation for the coaching change.
They didn’t get it, and won’t likely get one as before anyone even got to voice their concerns and issues with the administration’s decision, Board Chair Britt Madden in his first full meeting in the role made a statement about procedure and policy that prohibited the board from discussing the matter as a personnel issue.
“It is up to each of us to follow the rules and policies every day,” he said. “This board only directly oversees one employee in the district, the Superintendent. State and local policy dictates the standards to which we as a board oversee that position and provide guidance of what we as a board see as goals and objectives. It is Dr. Thomas and her team’s job to implement it… People in PSD make personnel decisions daily to the best of their ability in consideration of all policy and procedures. Every decision made, from hiring and firing to retirement and leaves of absences have strict rules of which to follow. The superintendent, who has responsibility for the whole organization, ultimately makes sure this function has taken place properly.”
He noted that personnel decisions are shared during executive session “almost every meeting” with board members who then are asked to approve those decisions before meetings conclude twice a month. Those decisions over the past six years “came with reasons for why those changes have occurred, and they are not taken lightly.”
“But subsequently because of the law, I can’t speak on any personnel decision,” Madden said.
His full statement is available in the following clip from Tuesday’s meeting:
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Madden provided a recitation of the rules for addressing the board before they called upon the trio of speakers seeking further information about the dismissal of Abrams. First up was Bulldogs football broadcaster and WGAA Owner and Operator Frank Burgess, wanting to know why such a successful coach was removed from the position.
“We are taxpayers, citizens, many of us former Bulldog players, and Cedartown High School graduates. We want answers as to why he was fired,” Burgess said. “Factually, he has lead the Bulldogs to the best five seasons in decades.”
He added that “Coach Abrams has provided us a football team that is the envy of the state of Georgia.”
His full 3 minutes of remarks are available in the following clip:
Burgess was followed by retired educator and coach Travis Ragsdale, who added that he felt he could voice the frustration of many current employees who fear for their jobs by addressing the board directly with this question:
I’ve been proud to call Cedartown home for 43 years, and especially proud of our accomplishments of our football team for the past five years. But not now. I’ve had phone calls from coaching friends in Alabama, Florida, South Georgia and North Georgia asking me: Has Polk School District’s board gone crazy?!”
And received a round of applause for the comment.
He was followed by Coach Worthington, who acknowledged the hard work and dedication that Abrams put into the job and noted that he had been a candidate in 2020 when the coaching position came open, and asked then that they find someone who could “outwork him” and was thankful that they had in hiring the former Bulldogs coach, who with a 50-12 record had a hugely successful run in his tenure leading the football team.
“He’s such a fanatic for football and doing anything he could to help our community,” Worthington said as his time was expiring. “I just question whether this was the best decision for our community and our players.”
Worthington’s full comments are in the following clip:
The board went on with their regular business after also hearing from Leroy Pugh, who talked about employee/employer relations during his three minutes before members on Tuesday evening.
Based on comments made by Madden leading the board, and the later published list of personnel matters on the board’s website of items they approved before closing out the regular session, no change was made in Abrams’ status as of this posting.
Following last week’s confirmation by PSD Superintendent Dr. Katie Thomas of the news, a story was published by another media outlet on Tuesday ahead of the Board of Education meeting her husband and Assistant Football Coach at Rockmart High Jonathan Thomas was the lead candidate for the role.
She denied he was being considered and had not provided an application for the job.
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