No fireworks as GHSA accepts executive director’s resignation

Gary Phillips said he wasn’t taking questions from the media and then spoke his piece.

No, he wasn’t happy with what has taken place the past two weeks with the state legislature, the GHSA and some state politicians apparently wanting him out. And he was ready to fight.

“This, however, would benefit no one, including the student-athletes, whom we are supposed to serve, and my family, who has been devastated by the events of the past two weeks,” the GHSA executive director said, reading a statement at Monday morning’s called executive committee meeting at the Thomaston-Upson Civic Center.

The committee met in executive session for an hour, took a short recess and returned for only a few minutes. GHSA president Glenn White read the original proposal to accept Phillips’ offer to resign at the end of the school year so long as his contract, through 2017-18, was honored. Then there was a unanimous vote not to accept it.

Then Phillips spoke briefly, simply reiterating his decision.

“I think it’s best for the association and my family,” Phillips said.

The same proposal was made and unanimously approved.

The GHSA is facing a pair of bills to form a new association. Senate Bill 203 is authored by Bartow County’s Bruce Thompson and backed by 16 other senators, including John F. Kennedy of Macon. House Bill 415 has six sponsors, led by John Meadows of Calhoun.

The House Education Committee right after lunch on Feb. 27 — at the same time the GHSA board of trustees was meeting in Thomaston — and heard Meadows, one of the primary authors, discuss the need for a new association. Several times, he mentioned the “internal problems” of the association, “real or perceived,” and wanted a passage to push the bill to the rules committee.

The underlying intent, from multiple sources, was for the GHSA board to vote for Phillips’ removal, which it did by a 5-3 vote, or risk being put out of business for a new association.

Northside athletics director and football head coach Kevin Kinsler, a new executive committee member, remained disturbed by the events leading to Monday’s meeting, starting with the video of Meadows’ presentation at the House Education Committee meeting on Feb. 27 and that the intent was more to oust Phillips than improve high school athletics governance in Georgia.

“If you watch the video, you know he doesn’t understand what’s in the bill,” Kinsler said. “For him to get up there and represent something without actually knowing what’s in it, if that’s the case, that’s even worse. It’s more than disheartening to know that an issue this serious was taken with such levity. And it’s kinda scary.”

Monday’s vote to not to accept Phillips’ resignation when it was first put to a vote was in part an expression of support for Phillips.

“The entire executive committee is unanimous in the belief that … one government body doesn’t have any business trying to bully another,” Kinsler said. “We’re unified in saying … we’re not going to stand by without fighting this. It was important to make sure that those particular legislators know we’re well aware of what’s happened here and that we’re unified, 100 percent.”

The board of trustees will meet within the next few weeks, and the association holds its regular spring meeting, which includes committee meetings, April 10 in Macon.

Executive committee members from Middle Georgia are Kinsler, Veterans principal Chris Brown, Mary Persons principal Jim Finch, Peach County athletics director and head coach Chad Campbell, Bleckley County athletics director Benjy Rogers, GMC athletics director and football head coach Steven Simpson and Houston County Board of Education assistant superintendent of for school operations Michelle Masters.

Voices were raised and could be heard out in the lobby during the hour-long executive session. The meeting took a short recess and reopened the meeting only a few minutes after returning. One thing Phillips noted was a survey commissioned to schools regarding the association’s performance. Phillips said in his statement that 339 of the GHSA’s 456 member schools responded and nearly 80 percent “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that they were satisfied with “their membership in the GHSA.”

Finch said that was something people should pay attention to.

“I think that speaks more toward the effectiveness of the Georgia High School Association than a loud minority, if you really want to get down to it,” Finch said.

Kinsler did get a favorable impression during the executive session that the association will address some issues.

“Obviously, there are some changes that needed to be made,” he said. “There are (people) on the committee, the majority of the committee, that are ready to address some of those issues in a realistic way and start dealing with them.

“What we do from this point going forward is more important that what we just got through doing. … We want to put measures in our own hands, not the state legislature’s.”

This story was originally published March 6, 2017 at 12:53 PM with the headline "No fireworks as GHSA accepts executive director’s resignation."