By Bruce Rolfe
Two members of the Climax-Scotts Board of Education offered explanations why they voted the way they did on two separate motions not to retain Climax-Scotts varsity football coach and Athletic Director Tyler Langs in those two positions at a special school board meeting February 24.
However one school board member had no comment and four other board members did not respond when asked by the Climax Crescent.
The Board voted by a 5-1-1 margin (Jackie Longman voted no and Matt Birkam recused himself due to conflict of interest) to non-renew Langs as the varsity football coach.
The board then voted by a 4-2-1 margin (Sue Reichert and Jackie Longman voted no and Matt Birkam recused himself) to non-renew Langs as Athletic Director.
C-S Superintendent Doug Newington said according to the definition of conflict of interest, Birkam did not need to recuse himself, but chose to on his own.
C-S school board member Jackie Longman offered a response after the February 24 meeting.
The Climax Crescent sent emails to either personal or school district email accounts to the other six school board members.
School board member Matt Birkam and Board president Sue Reichert responded to the email. Board members Trent Piper, Terri VandeGiessen, Steve Wurtzel and Lori Bagwell did not respond.
One school board member was sent an email to a business account as well as by a text message, alerting them about the email that was sent to their school district email account.
C-S School Board President Sue Reichert said she also sent an email to board members, alerting them about the emails the Climax Crescent sent to their school district email account.
Reichert said she carefully considered all facts when making her decision.
“Based on our investigation and the attorneys’ recommendations, additional complaints received as it pertained to Mr. T. Langs football coaching; and weighing in comments from the community, looking specifically at Tyler Langs and not Kevin Langs or the Langs’ family, I felt it was in our students best interest that he not be the football coach for the 2026-2027 school year. While I believe there are areas of improvement needed in terms of athletic director, I felt that he could continue in that role,” said Reichert.
Longman said she would have liked to have seen Langs brought back while offering opportunities to work on any shortcomings through a mentoring process.
“I don’t think that we’re doing the right thing here. What I would have liked to see happen was to reinstate him into all positions and put him on a PIP (Performance Improvement Plan) improvement plan to help mentor him a long the way and keep him around. In my head that’s the best solution. You’re taking the complaints seriously. We’re going to work on the things you need to work on. Overall, he’s been a great employee. In my opinion, looking at everything we got back in the investigation I would not have fired someone personally, for that. In my opinion, he should have been reinstated and mentored,” said Longman.
The C-S school board member said unfortunately navigating through the lengthy process has divided the community. Something she hopes will heal.
“I know there can be a way through. I have faith. But at this point I don’t know what that is because I think there’s such a strong division right now. I hope we can all come together and make it work. Just the way this is going to change things. It’s going to be a big change and I hope that we can make it through as a community and move forward. I’ve never been through anything like this. Even during Covid when people had pretty strong opinions but nothing like this. You see people who have grown up with each other, now on the opposite side of the fence. Everyone feels very strongly but I understand it, the emotion behind it, and what the Langs family means. I just don’t understand how we got here. I don’t think this was the right decision. I think we could have taken the complaints seriously but also done right by Tyler,” said Longman.
Longman said there are a lot of school of choice students enrolled in the school district and she’s concerned many will leave the district after the board’s decision to non-renew the two positions Langs held.
Two members of the Climax-Scotts Board of Education offered explanations why they voted the way they did on two separate motions not to retain Climax-Scotts varsity football coach and Athletic Director Tyler Langs in those two positions at a special school board meeting February 24.
However one school board member had no comment and four other board members did not respond when asked by the Climax Crescent.
The Board voted by a 5-1-1 margin (Jackie Longman voted no and Matt Birkam recused himself due to conflict of interest) to non-renew Langs as the varsity football coach.
The board then voted by a 4-2-1 margin (Sue Reichert and Jackie Longman voted no and Matt Birkam recused himself) to non-renew Langs as Athletic Director.
C-S Superintendent Doug Newington said according to the definition of conflict of interest, Birkam did not need to recuse himself, but chose to on his own.
C-S school board member Jackie Longman offered a response after the February 24 meeting.
The Climax Crescent sent emails to either personal or school district email accounts to the other six school board members.
School board member Matt Birkam and Board president Sue Reichert responded to the email. Board members Trent Piper, Terri VandeGiessen, Steve Wurtzel and Lori Bagwell did not respond.
One school board member was sent an email to a business account as well as by a text message, alerting them about the email that was sent to their school district email account.
C-S School Board President Sue Reichert said she also sent an email to board members, alerting them about the emails the Climax Crescent sent to their school district email account.
Reichert said she carefully considered all facts when making her decision.
“Based on our investigation and the attorneys’ recommendations, additional complaints received as it pertained to Mr. T. Langs football coaching; and weighing in comments from the community, looking specifically at Tyler Langs and not Kevin Langs or the Langs’ family, I felt it was in our students best interest that he not be the football coach for the 2026-2027 school year. While I believe there are areas of improvement needed in terms of athletic director, I felt that he could continue in that role,” said Reichert.
Longman said she would have liked to have seen Langs brought back while offering opportunities to work on any shortcomings through a mentoring process.
“I don’t think that we’re doing the right thing here. What I would have liked to see happen was to reinstate him into all positions and put him on a PIP (Performance Improvement Plan) improvement plan to help mentor him a long the way and keep him around. In my head that’s the best solution. You’re taking the complaints seriously. We’re going to work on the things you need to work on. Overall, he’s been a great employee. In my opinion, looking at everything we got back in the investigation I would not have fired someone personally, for that. In my opinion, he should have been reinstated and mentored,” said Longman.
The C-S school board member said unfortunately navigating through the lengthy process has divided the community. Something she hopes will heal.
“I know there can be a way through. I have faith. But at this point I don’t know what that is because I think there’s such a strong division right now. I hope we can all come together and make it work. Just the way this is going to change things. It’s going to be a big change and I hope that we can make it through as a community and move forward. I’ve never been through anything like this. Even during Covid when people had pretty strong opinions but nothing like this. You see people who have grown up with each other, now on the opposite side of the fence. Everyone feels very strongly but I understand it, the emotion behind it, and what the Langs family means. I just don’t understand how we got here. I don’t think this was the right decision. I think we could have taken the complaints seriously but also done right by Tyler,” said Longman.
Longman said there are a lot of school of choice students enrolled in the school district and she’s concerned many will leave the district after the board’s decision to non-renew the two positions Langs held.
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