Murray School District

School board expected to make ruling on softball coach

A Mid-south girls' softball coach has been relieved of duties after she complained that the Lafayette County School District was giving her team unequal treatment.

Catherine Papagolos has been the women's softball coach for Lafayette High School in Oxford for the past three years.

"In 2010, she had the highest record that the softball team and the softball league had ever seen," said Joe Murray, Papagolos' attorney.

However, after the first game of the 2011 season, Papagolos was removed as coach...

"She was succeeding and how was she rewarded, by being publicly demoted and then basically had her coaching career driven through the mud," said Murray.

“At this school district I would not recommend Coach Papagolos to be a coach,” Lafayette County School District Athletic Director Jeff Nelson told Action News 5 earlier this year, but now the decision is in the hands of the school board.

Catherine Papagolos claims she was let go two games into the season, after she voiced complaints about inequalities between the boys’ baseball team and girls’ softball teams.

Papagolos received the boot just one week after requesting to see the baseball coaches’ pay scales. Her attorney said the timing was suspicious.

However Nelson said his department has nothing to hide.

“All of our athletics are as equal and fair as we can get them,”

Nelson argued Papagolos was removed because of directional differences and no playoff wins. He added the former coach concerned herself with too many things other than coaching.

“If she would have gotten down there and done her coaching and worried about what she had, then she would have been much more successful,” he said.

“She had a winning record two seasons in a row, the soccer coach is struggling and he is okay,” said Murray. “Coach Pap complains of unequal treatment and she's shown the door.”

Papagolos is likely to find out her fate later today. The school board is expected to announce its decision at a 5:30 meeting.

Janesville School Board member to seek 44th District seat -- WCLO

— A Janesville School Board member said he would step down from the school board next year if he is elected to the state Assembly.

Kevin Murray recently announced his candidacy for the 44th Assembly District seat, which includes most of Janesville.

The seat is held by freshman Rep. Joe Knilans, R-Janesville, who told the Gazette he intends to run for re-election.

Murray, 55, of 35 S. Randall Ave., Janesville, is running as a Democrat. He is a retired Janesville firefighter and veteran of the U.S. Air Force.

Murray’s announcement is early but not unprecedented for an election that doesn’t happen until November 2012.

“Politically, it’s about getting out and getting the support early, before other people get out and get that,” he said.

Murray said he has heard at least one other Democrat is considering a run, so there’s likely to be a primary election.

Murray ran for the Assembly seat in 2004, coming in second in the three-way Democratic primary to Mike Sheridan.

Murray was re-elected in April to his third three-year term on the school board. He said the results of that election, in which he garnered 1,064 more votes than the next-highest vote-getter, were encouraging.

Murray calls himself a moderate Democrat who has worked with all sectors of the community, including local business leaders, in a variety of fundraising projects.

He said in his announcement that he is “concerned” with the direction of state government, especially with the hastily passed legislation that takes away most collective bargaining rights from public-sector employees.

That legislation has divided the community, and Murray’s announcement said he seeks to restore the “cooperation and teamwork that involves our business community, our labor and workforce.”

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