The decision of the Jersey Shore Area School Board to let stand the administration’s dismissal of Serena Henry as Athletic Director was misguided and harmful to the students, families, coaches, athletic programs, and community of Jersey Shore.

My wife Laura and I raised our children in this school district, enjoyed their participation in various sports, and look forward to our grandkids getting involved someday. In addition, Laura has been employed as an athletic auxiliary staff for track and swimming under for the past 17 years three different athletic directors, including Serena Henry.

We have been very impressed with Serena’s administrative, organizational, and people skills, her hard work, and her dedication to the student-athletes, coaching staff, and families of Jersey Shore. Laura found Serena to be the best, most efficient and well-organized Athletic Director she has worked with! In addition, Serena recently received the NIAAA Quality Program Assessment designation, an award received by only 4 Athletic directors in Pennsylvania and only 60 nationwide!

Under Serena’s leadership and oversight, 12 of our 15 athletic teams made it into post-season play, with 10 advancing to the state level. Serena created onboarding and mentor programs for new coaches, arranged for teams to support our community by volunteering at the New Love Center, oversaw 97 employees, and arranged transportation, communication, equipment, purchasing and logistics for 365 events each year! She performed with a level of excellence which brought performance reviews of “Distinguished” and “Satisfactory” and is well-loved by students, coaches, faculty, principals, families, and many in the administration!

So what were the offenses for which she was fired? One Purchase Order mistake on some uniforms (which she corrected), one email that was not answered within 48 hours, one meeting that she missed, some softballs that weren’t ordered because there was already a surplus of them, and one game that had to be rescheduled due to a double-booking that she DID take responsibility for, contrary to what was claimed in closing arguments by the administration’s lawyer, attorney J. David Smith. For these “multiple failures” Serena received discipline of multiple unpaid days off, for which there was no appeal process, and now termination.

In the scope of a job requiring hundreds of meetings and thousands of communications, these five “offenses” were not even worthy of suspension, let alone firing! In my work as a pastor, I have learned that it is much better to work with employees to help them succeed, instead of saving up minor offenses to build a case for termination. These instances should have been handled by communication with her direct supervisor (the high school principal) working toward mutual understanding, not unpaid suspensions and eventual termination by the superintendent, Dr. Ulmer.

In my opinion, the closing statement by a district attorney questioned Serena’s integrity and credibility, which was completely uncalled for, not supported by the evidence presented, and contrary to the excellent character seen by those of us who know Serena.

The school board should have interviewed her supervisor, the athletic trainer, coaches, students, principals, and families to determine the true value of Serena Henry as our athletic director. Our students, teams, coaches, and community will now suffer the consequences of this misguided decision.

The REV. CHARLES WINKELMAN

Jersey Shore

Submitted by Virtual Newsroom