COEUR d'ALENE — The meeting room of the Coeur d'Alene School District Board of Trustees was filled Monday with a sea of Viking blue as more than 50 people showed their support for a proposed change to how contracts are handled for district personnel such as coaches.

The regular meeting came in the wake of public outcry regarding the recent decision to not renew the contract of Coeur d'Alene High School basketball coach Kurt Lundblad. According to a trio of speakers who made their case to the board, changes are needed to the district's policy on classified employees — considered "at-will" employees under state code — to ensure students have consistent, quality role models while they participate in extracurricular activities.

"These seasonal employees are getting the short end of the stick," said Rick Rasmussen, CEO of Northwest Specialty Hospital. "When we have turnover, the kids lose out. These are role models. There are people here from more than 40 years ago — they have no dog in this fight — in support of the kids of School District 271."

Rasmussen, who began his proposal by speaking of his family's long history with the district and Viking athletics, said the group of parents, students, and supporters seeks to add three things to the current policy for classified employees:

1.) Corrective action plans that are meaningful and defined. 2.) Evaluations that are timely and meaningful to the employee 3.) An appeal process

"This could be a win, win, win situation," Rasmussen added. "The students get the leaders and people that are changing their lives. The extra-curricular staff gets the support from administration and administration gets a clear process."

Larry Schwenke, who retired from Coeur d'Alene High School after 35 years of employment as a coach and employee, challenged the trustees to consider adopting the suggested policies. He said in the last five years, a number of personnel changes have been made in the activity programs at the high school.

"In these changes, a common theme seems to be evident — the commonality deals with years of satisfactory evaluations followed by what they considered to be an unexpected notice of non-renewal," Schwenke said, adding the current senior class in one activity has been asked to "accept and understand" a decision to "go in a different direction" with personnel four years in a row.

Schwenke added that incorporating a process similar to the one suggested would help eliminate difficult and unexpected evaluations.

"The decision to renew or not renew a contract should not be a surprise," Schwenke said.

Joey Naccarato, a junior at CHS, began his speech to the board by saying he is a two-year letterman in football, and is about to enter his fourth year on the school's varsity basketball team. He added he is also involved in student government, and other extra-curricular activities, as a way to show the trustees he is involved with the entire school, rather than just one particular group.

"It's fun to win games and beat your rivals. It's fun to set up dances and plan the events for the year," Naccarato said. "But the best parts for me are the bonds you get with your teammates and coaches. I am very thankful for that."

Naccarato added he is going into his fourth season of basketball at the school, and the program has been "a model of inconsistency, confusion and a lack of coaches and players able to meet their full potential." The junior said he was very close with the past two basketball coaches and both have had a tremendous impact on his life.

"The most recent coach we had — outside of my family, I have never had someone instill what it's like to be a man, how to handle adversity and how the hard thing to do is the right thing to do," Naccarato said. "It's part of the reason I am up here. It hurts me to see a man I love so much treated the way he was."

Prior to receiving a standing ovation for his remarks, Naccarato encouraged trustees to take the proposal into consideration.

Kelly Ostrom, director of human resources, addressed the group about what she called its "request to expand Idaho Code in the Coeur d'Alene School District." She said she is not aware of a personnel action that was taken, or a contract renewal decision, that was not first approved by the district office before the action was taken. "Such actions were reviewed, were discussed, and then a thoughtful decision was made," she said. "The problem we have is that we can't share the details of that process with complainants except in general terms because we must maintain confidentiality within Idaho Code."

Ostrom added there is a grievance process for classified employees, in the event they are terminated for one of several reasons established in state code. However, she said, non-renewal of a contract does not fall within that grievance policy, and the contract of at-will employees can be ended at any time for any or no reason.

The board did not take action on the proposal since it was not scheduled for action in the publicly noticed meeting agenda. However they were in unanimous agreement that the matter should be further reviewed and addressed in a timely manner.