Signs like this are going up in Danville to show support for Clay Clevenger
Support for fired Danville High School football coach Clay Clevenger and frustration with the Danville school administration continues to swell. A group of concerned alumni and friends of the Danville Schools have sent a letter to the Board of Education and Danville High School site-based council with their intuition to withhold financial support until they “see some resolution to the current toxic situation” at the school system.
Attorney Patrick McClure has been part of the sponsorship for the Danville Athletics Hall of Fame for years. He also has a talented eighth-grade football player, another younger son, and a love for Danville schools that goes generations deep in his family.
“You know how agonizingly difficult this decision has been for me and many others. My grandfather was a captain on the 1921 Danville football and basketball teams, and I have had relatives play and support multiple sports throughout the last century,” McClure said. “As we look forward to 2021 and beyond, regardless of one decision made last week, I as a parent and we as business owners just couldn’t stand by and watch the lack of respect for our people and our traditions anymore.
“Turns out we weren’t alone. I’m very proud of the group that signed this declaration. Each of them has always represented the best of what it really means to be an Admiral, and that is what brings us together now to speak with one voice.”
It’s an impressive list of Danville supporters and business owners who signed the letter. They include Hall of Fame inductees Dr. John S. Jackson, Bethany Rogers, Chester Ford, Colin Rogers, Bill and Jim Critchfield, and Bill Ruth. Others signing the letter were Clay Albright of Caldwell Stone )Danville Youth Football president), Mark Dexter of Dexter Real Estate, Robbie Wilson of Weldquip, Stuart Critichfield (Danville Youth Football founder), Alex and Ann Yager McCrosky of Harvey’s, and attorney Melanie Clark Thornberry.
Dr. Will Webster of Webster Orthodontics has also paused financial support while Bob Allen Motormall, Hardee’s of Junction City, Tye Financial, and Blue Moon Insurance have withdrawn their financial support of the athletics programs.
“You know we are Admirals for life. Our grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews, and now sons and daughters all bleed blue. This decision to withhold our support is so incredibly hard for us, and we’d like the opportunity to explain,” the letter said. “It is easy to understand the frustration when none of us feel like the administration has any regard for the will of the people, be they the voters, the taxpayers, the teachers, the boosters, or most importantly the kids. Of course, we are not alone. Again and again, I say this is NOT about just one job. It is about a systemic failure of processes and relationships.”
The letter brings up the school’s decision to “strip Bate Middle School of its mascot” and ties to its history, a move that also met with widespread resistance and was later revoked. Clevenger partnered with the Bate Alumni Association to have a game every year with Danville players wearing the purple and gold of Bate.
“You will know that in the last seven years our program has done more to promote the needs of our minority populations than ever before, and those kind of results don’t show on the scoreboard; those achievements show in the number of kids we have produced (not just in football, but wrestling, track, and others) who came through our 6 a.m. weight program, some of whom have now become the first people in their family to graduate from college. Now we are going to go a ‘different direction’?” the letter said.
The letter cites a number of Danville alumni/supporters who have continued the Danville athletics legacy and how firing a successful football coach in the middle of a pandemic “upended what for many (kids) was the most stable thing they had: the regimen and discipline of a sports program.”
The group also notes that financial support is not being withheld because of a single person.
“This is about a system and a process, and whether that one coach leaves or stays, those problems are not going away without real change in the attitude and responsibility of our front offices,” the group said.
The group and others want a hearing/forum for grievances to be heard and answered — something the Board of Education has been unwilling to do. The letter signers are concerned about athletics but also about declining test scores and the overall perception of Danville schools.
“Our ship is sinking, and thus far neither the administration nor the Board has made any effort to throw us a rope. We have tried to hold back the tide of some of our kindest donors. But when day after day no one is willing to say we’re sorry, we’re going to do better, or just offer us insight into the PROCESS, it is hard to expect businesses to want to participate where they are clearly not respected,” the letter said. “For the Board or SBDM to say that they do not have the ability to address processes and systems that bind them to this community is rubbish. In fact, they have an OBLIGATION to do just that. They have a trust endowed by the voters to promote community relationships, not to ignore them.
“They have a fiduciary duty to ensure that our money is spent for the will of the people who give it by taxes, by purchasing tickets, or by giving of their time, energy, and financial support. They do not work for one person on a four-year contract. That employee works for the Board, and the people, just like anyone else from part-time employees and substitutes to instructional assistant to the head of a department. Sadly, but PROUDLY, in our minds and our collective institutional memory, we come to you now fighting for the very soul, and ultimately the long-term viability, of the Danville Independent School District.”
The good news here is that these folks — and others — are not going to abandon Danville if they see changes made. But they want to see signs that voices in the community will be heard and not continued to be ignored.
The letter closes this way:
“We want to be a part of the process when there is one. But our financial and other commitments, and our success, will be dependent on how you respond to this community. We are still Admirals, that can never be taken away from us, but we will all be waiting to see YOUR commitment that our Board, our administration, and our SBDMs are not just hearing, but also listening and caring and doing something about the place where we now find ourselves, and the way it is affecting everyone who loves this place so much.”
