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Hancock County, Miss., School Board Rehires Coaches

Posted on: Friday, 15 July 2005, 12:01 CDT

Jul. 15--HANCOCK COUNTY -- With a 2-2 vote last month, the School Board failed to renew the district's coaches, but with one of the opposing members in jail this month, the board rehired the coaches. Mere coincidence or effective politics?

School Board member Christopher "Packer" Ladner, who opposed rehiring two of the coaches, was arrested just minutes before last week's meeting, and while he was being booked into the county jail, the coaches got their jobs back -- all 39 of them.

A decision whether to renew the coaches was not on the meeting's agenda, at least not until after Ladner was pulled over on Mississippi 603 and arrested on a 4-year-old warrant, just a few miles from the School Board office.

Board member Peggy Ladner, no relation to Packer, said the board had discussed adding the issue to the agenda before members knew of the arrest.

In a phone interview with the Sun Herald this week, Packer Ladner said that being arrested on a 2001 failure-to-appear warrant, while heading to a decisive board meeting, was likely not a mere coincidence.

Constable Terry Necaise, who arrested Ladner, said he overheard customers in a Kiln gas station talking about Ladner's warrant, which stemmed from a 2001 DUI charge.

"Any good law enforcement officer knows that a lot of good information comes from the public," Necaise said. "I took an oath to uphold the law and carry out all orders from the Justice Court system; that warrant was signed by a judge and I just executed it."

Necaise would not name the "customers" who told him about the warrant or how he obtained it.

Because Ladner spends most of the week working construction in Louisiana, Necaise said making the arrest just before the School Board meeting was his best opportunity.

"Packer works out of town, and I thought that was the best time to serve the warrant, because I knew he would be going to the meeting," Necaise said. "I treated him with respect, and let him drive away from the School Board office before making the arrest."

Packer Ladner said he went in and told Superintendent David Kopf that he wouldn't be at the meeting.

According to Sheriff Steve Garber, more than 500 out-dated warrants sit in a file cabinet at the Hancock County Sheriff's Department. Garber said he has asked the Board of Supervisors for a warrant officer, which would make serving outdated papers much easier.

Ladner said his warrant being pulled from a crowd of several hundred likely was "not a coincidence."

Ladner was released after the $390.50 due to clear the warrant was paid.

In the an e-mail to a former board member more than five hours before the board meeting, Peggy Ladner, who voted to rehire all of the coaches, said, "I have an ace I think I can still play, which may or may not work for the coaches."

Shetold the Sun Herald she was discussing a new policy that would have increased the chances of getting the coaches rehired before the school year begins.

"I was talking about a new policy that I was working on that would have taken the decision out of the hands of the School Board," she said. "It would've made it a decision for the superintendent, based on the AG's opinion that the Sun Herald found and other laws."

With last month's 2-2 deadlock, the School Board failed to renew the coaches and their supplemental pay for next year. The Sun Herald later reported that Kopf has "the authority and power to employ and dismiss" the coaches, not the School Board, according to an attorney general's opinion.

Board newcomer Rose Acker had previously voted against rehiring the coaches, but changed her decision last week. The coaches were rehired with a 3-0 vote.

Acker said she voted yes because voting no would have made no difference given Packer Ladner's absence.

Packer Ladner said he was angry about the way the School Board handled the decision, adding, "this coaching issue is not over yet."

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss.

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Source: The Sun Herald (Biloxi, Miss.)

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