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Probe opens into coach at Northwest

Friday, June 19, 2009
(Updated 8:41 am)
By Robert Bell
Staff Writer

GREENSBORO — All along, Northwest Guilford basketball coach Manny Bloom has maintained his innocence, claiming he was cleared of any wrongdoing at his old job in Boca Raton, Fla.

Palm Beach County Schools officials are just as adamant Bloom’s version is not quite accurate.

On Thursday, Guilford County Schools officials jumped into the he-said/they-said fray, announcing they would investigate the matter themselves.

Nora Carr, chief of staff for Superintendent Maurice “Mo” Green, said Guilford officials are looking into Bloom’s final months as a basketball coach and teacher at Boca Raton High School in Florida.

At issue: Was Bloom up front with Northwest Guilford officials about the outcome of a Palm Beach County Schools investigation into a series of lucrative basketball camps and clinics he ran?

“It’s pretty clear this week the information from both sides is different,” Carr said. “We want to make sure anything that was represented to the school district was represented appropriately.”

Carla Alphin, program administrator for employee relations for Guilford County Schools, will talk with district officials this week in Palm Beach County, Carr said. Alphin could not be reached for comment Thursday night.

At the time of his resignation last year from Boca Raton High, Bloom and the school’s principal were being investigated by school system officials for depositing $421,983 in proceeds from for-profit basketball camps and clinics into three private accounts. Two of those accounts were personal accounts belonging to Bloom, according to documents from the Palm Beach investigation.

Palm Beach school officials said Bloom used Boca Raton’s gym without signing a lease.

Bloom maintained Thursday that the school’s principal did not require him to sign a lease because Bloom’s camp was giving some money back to the school and because the camp was serving local youth.

Since the camps were for-profit ventures, Palm Beach officials said Bloom should have signed a lease with the school system or deposited the proceeds into an internal school account.

Bloom did neither, according to the investigation’s findings.

Palm Beach County Schools board spokesman Nat Harrington said Thursday the investigation into Bloom ended when he resigned.

“Generally it's our policy to drop an investigation when someone no longer works for the school district,” Harrington said.

Bloom said school officials in Florida would have never let him off if they believed he had violated school policy.

“If they thought I was dead wrong they would have been all over me, even followed me up here,” he said. “They’re just twisting things around because they don’t have anything now and they didn’t have anything then.”

Haley Miller, a spokeswoman for Guilford County Schools, said Thursday the school system handles criminal background checks for most new employees. It is the responsibility of each school to check a potential employee’s references.

Northwest Athletics Director John Hughes said he called about 20 people in Florida looking into Bloom. He said Bloom told him up front about the investigation and that he had been cleared. Northwest principal Angelo Kidd said earlier Thursday he expected to meet with Bloom that evening. Kidd did not return telephone calls Thursday night.

Contact Robert Bell at 373-7055 or robert.bell@news-record.com

Accompanying Photos

Photo Caption: Manny Bloom

Comments

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dp643

June 19, 2009 - 5:54 am EDT

Coach Bloom may have very well told the truth as he saw it----the real questions to me are 1) "Did the AD really call 20 people,? 2) Why did he see the need to call that many for a hire? 3) Will the principal "throw" the AD under the bus? and 4) Where is Darlene Garrett?
DP643
PS. What kind of leader do we have heading up one of our 5 new regional systems?

Panacea

June 19, 2009 - 7:51 am EDT

Athletic DIrectors want coaches who will win. I find it incredible that NO ONE had anything to say about the investigation if he were really cleared. At best it might have been, "we can't comment on an active investigation," or "Bloom did indeed work for us from this date to that date." If there were still questions, then anyone in Florida official that was contacted would have said that and nothing more.

So I don't believe he was "cleared." If so, why wasn't it in the papers in Florida? That much money, I find it hard to believe he didn't hit the papers there about it. Hmm. Have to look.

Panacea

June 19, 2009 - 7:57 am EDT

Some interesting links: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/local_news/epaper/2009/01/01/a.... January article on the investigation that sounds hauntingly familiar . . . .

Illiterati

June 19, 2009 - 8:32 am EDT

Panacea, nice Googling! I see that Manny's brush-off is that it's all "just spin." Kind of like StanK's "just jealous" retort. I guess any jealous spin that nets this much money must make the inevitable public outrage and scurrying on to fresh suckers—er, school districts—totally worth it to these guys.

I don't believe the AD really called 20 people about Bloom. It takes a lot of time just to reach the standard 3 references, much less 20. I'm guessing he didn't even ask about the investigation, regardless of how many people he called—if he even called any. He should have to show his records regarding those 20 references.

beach35

June 19, 2009 - 8:51 pm EDT

No. He wouldn't be permitted to answer any question regarding the investigation anyway, as the potential employee could sue for defamation of character if he did not get the position. I know the law. I successfully won a lawsuit with a former employer and the potential employer as well for a large chunk of change based on defamation a few years ago. A boss who I got along with very well was listed as a reference for me. When my potential employer called the office, my boss was not there and a fellow employee answered. They were nailed under deposition for 1. asking a question they shouldn't have. 2. the fellow employee defamed me with the answer. Some dumb hicks. Got them hicks real good.

DaveW

June 19, 2009 - 8:44 am EDT

This principal would throw ANYONE under the bus to save his tail or to advance his career. He should not be promoted to regional supt.

dcolin

June 19, 2009 - 9:02 am EDT

Really?
What is his background and history

dcolin

June 19, 2009 - 9:10 am EDT

Why are you confused or surprised

Grier had hired Becoats who got in trouble in the Mecklenberg System.
Hired at the top. Never taught a class.Never been a principal.
We got both him and his wife.

We specialize in troubled individuals.

igliigli

June 19, 2009 - 8:03 am EDT

NC Schools and the UNC System should get rid of their sports teams and focus on academics.

bigwill

June 19, 2009 - 8:16 am EDT

Just simply getting rid of sports programs will not better the academics in schools. You are living in a dream world if you think that. The problem is not sports, the majority of the issues with academics starts at home. If you look at most school records of athletes, they are not the ones having problems with academics.

DaveW

June 19, 2009 - 8:41 am EDT

Igliigli---You are advocating doing something that will or would have greatly hurt my 2 children and I don't appreciate it one bit.You do not think about a solution you just spew hatred for something you do not understand. I challenge you again to run for public office on a get rid of athletics platform.I know you do not have the guts to do so.

dcolin

June 19, 2009 - 9:15 am EDT

I don't agree with doing away with sports.
However It need not hurt your children.
The schools could have club/inter mural sports so they could still play.
Is that a problem for you?.
If so why>

bigwill

June 19, 2009 - 10:37 am EDT

If the schools had club/intra mural sports, then that would still be the same as school sports. So what point are you trying to make here?

Panacea

June 19, 2009 - 11:20 am EDT

Intramural sports would allow a greater number of children to participate and remove the focus on "win at all costs."

bigwill

June 19, 2009 - 12:13 pm EDT

You obviously haven't participated in intramural sports lately if you think the win at all costs attitude would be removed. Also, we are talking about teens (young adults) playing, not children. There would not be a big difference in the amount of participants, since at that age, teens will still participate the same as they do now. Sports programs now are the same as they would be if you switched to intramural sports. Your good athletes will override the poor athletes, which would then lead right back to where we started. It would be a useless transition. How do you think sports started in the first place? Not everyone was great at playing, but over time the great out performed the weak, which lead to what we have today.

Panacea

June 19, 2009 - 1:35 pm EDT

Intramural sports are usually run different than extracurricular athletics, but if you think the attitude would be no different than maybe I should rethink my position and say we DO need to halt sports programs of all sorts for awhile.

Here's where teachers and coaches make the difference. If they keep the game about fun, even if it is competitive, then everyone wins. If they allow the kids to push out the ones who are not as talented, then the point is voided and we should just get rid of sports and let the ones who want to be athletes play club sports.

bigwill

June 19, 2009 - 2:25 pm EDT

The students that play the sports want to win, it has nothing to do with the teachers or coaches. If you play any sport even if its intramural, you are still playing to win. This isn't Little League we are talking about here. Anyways, you are starting to get off of the subject of what I replied to earlier. Like I was saying, dcolin said why not have schools have club/intramural sports. Again, that would still be considered school sports and even though it may start as being "fun only", it will eventually go back to the same issue we have now.

Panacea

June 19, 2009 - 5:58 pm EDT

Then we'd best not have it at all. If the adults can't teach kids good sportsmanship, then there's no point in school sports at all. You've convinced me: we just need to get rid of it. It's a waste and a drain on resources that could be better used to help the entire student body, not just a priviledged few.

Young athletes should play club sports.

DaveW

June 20, 2009 - 8:58 am EDT

Both of my kids were/are in individual sports that intermurals would not cover. Not like basketball/volleyball etc. They both have made all conference honors. That would ONLY occur in an interscholastic competition. My oldest was recruited by several UNC-system schools and got to participate collegiately and got some athletic scholarship money which helped MY economy at home. My second child wants to compete in college like the older sibling and has done the things necessary to do so. Among them are: GPA high enough to qualify for a UNC system school, SAT high enough , registering with the NCAA clearinghouse, (not to mention the things you athletics naysayers most fail to understand) setting goals and day in and day out working towards them. This last item is a life skill that athletic participation teaches well.Itermurals would not teach that like athletic teams presently do. Intermurals are worthwhile and fun but they DO NOT REQUIRE COMMITMENT like athletic teams do. There is the difference. No knock on intermurals. The can be a supplement to but not a replacement for a strong athletic program.They are still big on the collegiate campuses but are not so on high school campuses in our area.

dcolin

June 20, 2009 - 11:26 am EDT

Who told you athletics teaches all this great stuff. Builds character etc.

Look at all the thugs in the NFL and NBA.

Athletics reveals character does not produce character.

Thats a myth.
It produces no more or less character than any other endeavor
period

I am tired of hearing that to justify it.
Games are games.
For kids and adults they are play.
No more no less.

I happen to enjoy sports but my mother and father built character.
If you get the right coach or teacher they build character.
Not the sport itself..

Laura

June 19, 2009 - 8:33 am EDT

Conservatives are always calling for privatizing schools -- but are strangely silent about the exhorbitantly expensive extra-curricular team sports that are supported by taxpayers. I guess businessmen and politicians don't mind their entertainment being publicly funded. But team sports increasingly breeds corruption and cheating and distract from the educational mission of schools.

Instead of privatizing academics, extra-curricular athletics should be privatized; the money saved could fund improved physical and health education during the school day, and nutritious school lunches.

Noyouranidiot

June 19, 2009 - 9:10 am EDT

Yes, Laura, let's politicize this at the first opportunity.

Let's also make the pedagogically unfounded assertion that team sports "distract from the educational mission of schools". I certainly hope that you have nothing to do with curriculum design (or any other educational responsibility). Why is it that leading graduate programs like Teachers College at Columbia University in New York, virtually all top-tier MBA programs, and most medical schools advocate a team-based approach to learning throughout much of their curricula? I'll tell you why -- because it prepares students for real-world problem-solving and innovative ideation that is more often undertaken and executed as part of a group than as individuals. Hence the importance of that trivial notion known as "teamwork".

I suppose you suggest transferrable educational concepts such as rote memorization and the like to give our children a leg up in the competitive world they will soon enter. Well done, Laura. Well done. Not.

Panacea

June 19, 2009 - 11:22 am EDT

It is true that learning to work as a team is an important educational modality.

But she's talking about team sports and the rampant corruption there within. That corruption, the blatant cheat, how does that prepare kids for the competitive world? Do we want to teach kids that cheating is an OK way to get ahead in the world? How many Ken Lays do we really need?

TOTHE POINT

June 19, 2009 - 11:58 am EDT

Dear, Dear Laura, did you know that there are high schools and colleges in this country that depend on the revenue generated from athletic programs. Not to mention those athletes that would not get into the gates of college without a scholarship to pay for their education. A number of high school and college athletic programs do pay for themselves. I can not speak for North Carolina. Did you know that some of your private institutions like the two you have in G'boro enrollments are centered around the number of students that take part in athletics and if those teams were dropped that the enrollments in the math, history and english department would also take a hit? Laura, I was wondering if you could tell me what ticket prices for the debat team were going for this days or if the music department were planning to raise the prices of their concession stand items at their summer bach festival? Are you aware of this. Laura there is a saying in athletics there is no "I" in team... so don't worry I will make sure that the debate team at my school is well looked after since those young men and women are also a part of a team. So the next time you talk about privatizing to save tax dollars remember we are all a team. Oh, I forgot and silly me... would you like to purchase tickets for the drama team's fundraiser it is for a good cause .... "GENDER EQUITY"

dcolin

June 19, 2009 - 3:39 pm EDT

Do you like to insult people?
If so why.
I sense a great deal of hostility towards Laura.

dcolin

June 19, 2009 - 8:35 am EDT

For goodness sakes.
The school and HR hired a "Teacher" who's license is for K-6.
We essentially gave him guard duty ( In School Suspension ) so he could coach.
We are investigating him?
We need to be investigating ourselves.
Principal, AD, Human Resources all the way up.

The principal and AD told him that he would have to handle money different here.
HR is happy with the license.
Think about it. He is not qualified to teach PE in high school.

marowland13

June 19, 2009 - 9:27 am EDT

I think it's disgusting that NWHS's principal let Mike Everett go as the head basketball coach to hire this jerk. Please bring in the new principal and CLEAN HOUSE! Hire coach Everett back too.

maryfrancis

June 19, 2009 - 9:53 am EDT

I made a promise to myself that I would not read and/or comment any further on this subject because I just feel it has gotten way out of hand and quite frankly, comical.

With the latest installation in this continuing saga I just had to say a couple of things

John Hughes is without a doubt the biggest hypocrite ever!

It is the most ridiculous suggestion to rid our schools of sports. I can barely type a response to this resolution because it is not only ludicrous but it is ignorant and fueled by citizens who have obviously never experienced the advantages it offers. In short this argument does not deserve ink.

At this point in this so-called “investigation” I feel that what Jill Wilson and Mo Green have done to destroy the reputation of Coach K is shameful and he deserves at the very least an apology. The more I read the more I am convinced that their motives were unjustified and the outcome has been severely blown out of proportion. I believe that before this is all over Coach K will be completely exonerated and Northern should be begging for his return! It is not too late…Northern could regain not only their coach but also an opportunity to continued success. The only question is…would he accept?

The general public has jumped on the bandwagon to crucify a good man (not to mention an excellent coach) without full knowledge and disclosure. It is unfortunate that as a society we are so anxious to see someone fall for our own pleasure…it is disgraceful and the entire negative response in regards to Coach K is abominable. I believe that when the final word is spoken my response will be warranted.

get the facts straight

June 19, 2009 - 10:35 am EDT

Mary Francis,
You had me at the beginning, but everyone knows at this point that Coach K is a clown. That is not to say that there are not issues at NWG. Perhaps there are and those will come to light if that is the case. However, Coach K lost any possible sympathy he had after the information in the documents on News 2's website. I don't think the county is done with Coach K. and I don't think the DA's Office and IRS will be done with him either. The documents that he just turned in to the county attorney will not disprove anything especially since he clearly wrote checks for personal services and claims to have put his own money into a tax sheltered account. Any documents he turned in won't have anything to do with those serious legal mistakes. He has made himself look like an idiot in the media. If he would have kept his mouth shut and not said and done such idiotic things after he was let go, he might have had more sympathy and could have perhaps walked away as a fired coach but kept some part of a reputation in tact. He blew that opportunity and now 90% of the public thinks he is a clown. Don't use the mess at NW Guilford to try and make Coach K look like a victim.

maryfrancis

June 19, 2009 - 10:53 am EDT

At the risk of “volleying” with you (which I hate) I will follow up with one last response…

My assessment of Coach K is certainly not a personal one due to the fact that I do not know him on that level. However, I believe that the responses posted here in regards to him have been somewhat unfair at times. It seems that most of the attacks have been made by intelligent although biased spectators. I hate to see anyone put in a position to defend himself on such a public forum without complete disclosure from GCS. I do not believe in any stretch of the imagination that we have all the facts. It is clearer and clearer that GCS does not have a grip on how to deal with this and it is my opinion (more and more each time something else is printed) that Coach K is the chosen “fall guy”.

Calling someone names is childish and does nothing to help with this cause (either for or against) and that honestly just corroborates my response to these incisive, negative posters.

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