UNITE WON'T HELP PAY COACH

Howard Doesn't Meet Qualifications For Drug Counselor, Board Says

WHITESBURG - An anti-drug agency has thrown a flag on the Letcher County
school system's attempt to pay a football coach with money earmarked to
hire a substance-abuse counselor.

Directors of Operation UNITE, which is providing money for drug counselors
in 44 Appalachian Kentucky school districts, voted unanimously not to
approve hiring championship coach Hillard Howard as Letcher County's
UNITE-funded counselor, said Karen Engle, executive director of the agency.
UNITE stands for Unlawful Narcotics Investigation, Treatment and Education.

Engle said she notified Letch-er County Superintendent Anna Laura Craft
last week that Howard did not meet UNITE's requirements for the counseling
job. Those positions require applicants to either have, or be working to
get, a certification in drug and alcohol counseling, or to have a degree in
psychology, sociology, or social work and five years' experience as a
counselor.

Engle and Tom Handy, a former prosecutor who chairs the UNITE board, said
they had nothing against Howard. He is a community leader who has a great
deal of experience with young people, Engle said -- someone she wants
involved in the fight against drugs.

But he is not a mental health professional, she said.

"We can't pay for football coaches," Engle said.

Craft insisted that her request to hire Howard as the school system's
UNITE-funded drug counselor was not an end run toward the real goal of
getting a football coach.

"Football had nothing to do with any of that," said Craft. It seemed
logical to place Howard in the UNITE position because of his background,
which included helping organize student drug testing in Pike County, and
because she wanted to avoid duplicating drug-prevention efforts, Craft said.

Counselors hired through the federally funded UNITE program are to focus on
talking to students to help them with substance-abuse problems, including
trying to get them not to use drugs or alcohol.

Howard said that although he does not meet the requirements UNITE set for
those jobs, he feels he is well qualified to help students.

That is not only because of his long experience as an administrator and
football coach in Pikeville, Howard said, but also because of his
background. Growing up in a Letch-er County coal camp as one of 14
children, he was a "problem kid" himself, he said, so he can relate to
troubled young people.

However, Howard acknowledged that the main reason he went to work in
Letcher County was to build a football program as head coach at the new
Letcher County Central High School, which is set to open this fall.

"But as far as being involved in the UNITE program, I wasn't overly excited
about that in the first place," he said.

Caller Criticized Hiring

The decision to hire How-ard quickly ignited controversy in Letcher County
after he started work in January.

On Jan. 19, The Mountain Eagle, the county's largest local newspaper,
published a dia-tribe from an anonymous caller in its popular Speak Your
Piece column, blistering both Craft and the Letcher school board for
reportedly hiring Howard with money intended to pay a counselor.

Calling the decision an underhanded misappropriation of funds aimed at
getting a football coach, the caller said sarcastically, "After all,
everyone knows we don't have a drug problem in this county, but we do need
a ball coach."

Howard, 57, retired from Pikeville Independent Schools in 2002 after
compiling a 208-48 record as a football coach and winning three state Class
A titles. He had also been an assistant principal for 15 years and
principal for two.

Football coaches in Kentucky typically also have another job in the school
system.

After retiring from the Pike-ville system, Howard went to work as a
classified employee for the Pike County schools as a safe-schools
coordinator and helped with the Shelby Valley High football program, while
beginning to draw retirement pay from his earlier career.

State law allows a school employee who has been in a certified job -- a
teacher or administrator -- to return to work right away in a classified
job while collecting pension pay. Classified jobs in Kentucky schools are
those that don't require educational certification, such as custodians,
cooks and bus drivers.

Classified employees also can coach sports teams, said Lisa Gross,
spokeswoman for the Kentucky Department of Education.

To Be Paid By School System

Craft and the Letcher County school board hired Howard as a classified
employee. His annual salary is $62,500 -- $50,000 as the drug-prevention
and safe-schools coordinator and $12,500 to coach football, Craft said.

UNITE has budgeted a salary of $28,000 each for the 31 substance-abuse
counselors it will pay for in the 44 school systems in its area of Eastern
and southern Kentucky, as well as $16,000 per position to cover benefits,
training and travel, for a total of $44,000.

Craft said Howard will remain as both the football coach and the
drug-prevention and safe-schools coordinator even without funding from
UNITE. The school system will pay him from its general fund, she said.

UNITE is a non-profit agency created by U.S. Rep. Harold "Hal" Rogers to
fight drug problems in his district.

In addition to paying for counselors, the program's treatment initiative
involves assessing how the schools are providing anti-drug education,
helping with improvements, training teachers to incorporate drug-abuse
prevention information into lessons, and providing teaching materials if
necessary. It has also provided money for two new drug-treatment centers.