By DAVE SCHULTZ
The agenda for Monday night’s meeting of the Bluffton-Harrison Metropolitan School District included a long list of hiring recommendations as the 2022-23 school year is under way.
One of the names on that list of recommended hires was that of Bluffton High School varsity boys’ basketball coach Karl Grau.
Grau eventually kept his coaching position on a 4-1 vote by the board primarily because he was on that list of recommended hires for this school year.
As the meeting started, Robert Trexler — saying he represented parents involved with the basketball program who couldn’t be present Monday night — addressed the board members during the public comment portion of the meeting. He asked that Grau not be rehired to lead the Tigers in the 2022-23 season.
“Karl Grau has made a name for Bluffton basketball — a negative one,” Troxel said.
Trexler said Grau has been a bad influence on his players and was “not a positive role model.” He said there had not been another employee in the history of the basketball program “who has caused this much commotion” and retained his job.
The team had the talent and the ability to win, Trexler said, but he said that Grau’s negative attitude did not allow the team to succeed.
When the board reached the personnel portion of the agenda, board member Trent White — as he did last year — asked that Grau’s name be considered separately from the other names on the list of recommended employees. The other board members agreed.
When it was time to discuss Grau’s status, board member Mike Murray said it wasn’t necessarily the board’s decision to fire the basketball coach. The board hires a superintendent and the superintendent and the school administrators make hiring recommendations to the board. Grau’s name was included in the hiring recommendations and therefore had the support of the majority of the board.
“We’ve heard a lot of things,” Murray said. “They’ve been investigated by our administration.”
The board’s role is to hire the superintendent and the superintendent hires the building administrators, Murray said. He indicated that the support of the school district’s leadership carried the day for Grau.
“Not everybody’s going to agree with that,” Murray said. “When it comes down to it, we have to trust our superintendent and our administrators that we’ve put in place.”
He acknowledged that the boys basketball position “seems to be a hot topic. All of our basketball coaches have been complained about. We have many other things that come up with coaches during the year.”
In the end, Murray said, “you either like somebody or you don’t.”
Murray, Bruce Holland, Julie Thompson, and Angie Sheets all voted in favor of maintaining the recommedation to keep Grau in place. White voted against it.
Grau came to Bluffton during the 2011-12 school year and was the freshman boys’ basketball coach during his first year at the high school. In 2012, he became the girls’ basketball coach and held that position through the 2019-20 school year.
When Chris Benedict resigned as the boys’ coach after the 2019-20 season, Grau was chosen to lead the boys’ basketball program. The upcoming season will be his third as the coach of the Tigers’ boys’ team.
daves@news-banner.com
