Ex-Football Coach Pleads Not Guilty to Felony Charges
Cardinal Schools Board of Education voted unanimously June 30 to terminate the employment contract of head football coach George Gresko, as of July 2.
Cardinal Schools Board of Education voted unanimously June 30 to terminate the employment contract of head football coach George Gresko, as of July 2.
Gresko, 28, who also occupied the position of district student success coach/alternative placement supervisor until being placed on paid suspension last month, was fired after the school board met with Superintendent Bill Kermavner for over an hour in executive session, the first action on the agenda.
Earlier Wednesday, Gresko was arraigned in Geauga County Common Pleas Court on two felony charges: tampering with records and unauthorized use of a computer. He entered a plea of not guilty to all charges and his case was assigned to Paschke’s courtroom for future proceedings. If found guilty, he faces up to 48 months in jail and fines of up to $12,500.
The school board’s two-and-a-half-page resolution concluded, “the board of education hereby acts to terminate, effective 12:01 a.m. on July 2, 2021, Mr. George Gresko’s employment contract … for good and just cause due to his unprofessional behavior, misconduct, incompetence, dishonesty, immoral conduct, insubordination, neglect of duty, willful and persistent violation of reasonable regulations of the board and other failure of good behavior.”
The resolution claims the violations constitute “good and just cause for his termination pursuant to Article 15 – Disciplineof the negotiated agreement between the board and the Ohio Association of Public School Employees Local 4, AFSCME/AFL/CIO, Local #616 and Ohio Revised Code Section 3319.081.”
The board’s actions were based on an investigation into Gresko’s activities during his two years of employment.
In response to a public records request, the district provided 32 pages of documentation, much of which was summarized in a June 9 letter Kermavner sent to Gresko notifying him of his pre-termination hearing set for June 11.
“My decision to pursue this course of action with the board is compelled by the recent school district and Middlefield (Village) Police Department investigation into allegations that you changed and added to students’ grades without authorization,” Kermavner wrote. “Specifically, based on the school district’s review of various students’ grades over the past few months (i.e. between December 2020 through March 2021), it appears that you have accessed the electronic files of students who are assigned to you and have either changed their grades by increasing their previous scores or provided them with additional credit for work that was not completed in order to enhance their scores.”
That internal investigation ultimately led to a Middlefield Village Police Department investigation and the ensuing felony charges against Gresko.
Kermavner enumerated Gresko’s violations in the letter, including: not following the district’s COVID-19 mask policy; leaving students alone in the classroom for more than 20 minutes without notifying colleagues or the administration; needing a personal improvement plan to ensure a 75% passage rate of his students; and failing to comply with the district’s social media policy.
Nearly a dozen visitors, including teachers, coaches and students, attended Wednesday night’s meeting, but did not offer a comment during the hearing of the public immediately after board members exited the executive session.
The resolution to terminate Gresko was not on the agenda, but included at the end of the meeting as an addendum. It passed without discussion.
Included in the agenda as action item C under the superintendent’s report was a supplemental contract for the 2021-2022 school year to hire Chris Perotti as head football coach. The action items passed unanimously without discussion.
In a July 1 telephone conversation, Kermavner said he conducted a thorough background check on Gresko, who previously had been assistant coach at Kenston Schools, and found he was licensed through the Ohio Department of Education as a paraprofessional.
When the superintendent learned grades were being hacked, the hacker’s identity was unknown. The school has no authority to subpoena other IP addresses that came to light, so the district contacted MVPD for assistance.
“I was not 100% sure who did this. I had to be sure who was changing the grades,” Kermavner said.
Gresko had been employed for more than a year at Cardinal and was an OAPSE member, therefore, the board could not just non-renew his contract, explained Kermavner. An evaluation might have led to his contract expiring, but because Gresko was on paid suspension an evaluation could not be done. Termination was the other alternative.
However, Gresko was warned several times about being terminated but chose not to quit, the superintendent added.
Said Kermavner: “Every employee has the right to resign before action is taken. He knew that.”
