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ROCKFORD - Former Parkway High School boys basketball coach Doug Hughes, who resigned from the role in April but was still contracted as a high school intervention specialist, submitted his resignation as a rehired retiree teacher on Wednesday.
School board members accepted his resignation during their July board meeting Wednesday night.
In April, Hughes resigned as coach following what he said was an uncharacteristic evaluation with Teri Samples, the district's athletic director. Then, Hughes said he would continue the intervention specialist role as he had been a teacher for 34 years.
When asked Wednesday after the meeting, Hughes confirmed he submitted his resignation on June 29 as a teacher.
"It was just good timing," he said. "(It's) time to explore other opportunities."
Also on Wednesday, superintendent Laura Young confirmed Hughes would not teach, saying, "That's the decision."
"I have been a head coach for 25 years and have never sat through an evaluation like this one," Hughes had written in his letter of resignation as coach, which The Daily Standard obtained through a public records request. "Mrs. Samples had numerous concerns, all of which I felt were minor. I believe each of her concerns could have been addressed during the season rather than 3-5 months after it ended. I believe this situation was handled very poorly by Parkway Local Schools. After receiving my evaluation, I felt I had no other choice but to resign my position as head basketball coach."
Hughes had said his evaluation was on April 14, and he resigned April 16. He is evaluated every year at the end of the season, usually by February or March.
In the evaluation, responsibilities are ranked 1 to 5, with 1 meaning excellent; 2, good; 3, effective; 4, needs improvement; and 5, ineffective. Out of the 16 specific tasks under the professional duties and responsibilities subcategory, Hughes was given five 4-ratings and five 1-ratings. He received various 1 though 3 ratings on other items in the coaching performance and professional and personal relationships categories.
When he came in for his evaluation, he had said Samples was there with Young, which was unusual.
Their concerns included Hughes having improper paperwork and that "managers were running the halls during basketball practice," he had said.
"No concerns or meetings or conversations were ever brought to my attention during the course of the basketball season," he had said after the board of education meeting May 13 when board members accepted his resignation as coach. "I just thought that if you had concerns - and I thought all of the concerns that were in the evaluations were minor - that you would bring them up throughout the course of the basketball season so that improvements could be made."
Hughes had said he submitted his coaching resignation after 21 years with the district because he felt it would be hard to come back to the role "under these situations just with the lack of communication from the leadership in the athletic department."
Board members approved hiring William Garlock as high school boys basketball coach on May 13.
At that time, he was working for Defiance College as an admissions counselor and assistant men's basketball coach. He is a graduate of Lima Central Catholic and attended Defiance, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in history and a minor in sports management.
In other business, board members also accepted Debra Pierce's retirement resignation as treasurer, marking the end of a messy allegation process in which she was accused of using the district's Amazon account to make personal purchases.
In February, the newspaper reported that the district's former longtime treasurer allegedly used the school's Amazon account to make personal purchases, according to a complaint obtained by The Daily Standard through a public records request, leading the school board to not renew her contract and place her on paid administrative leave.
On Nov. 11, 2025, Young emailed the state auditor's Special Investigation Unit claiming Debbie Pierce used the school's Amazon account to make personal purchases tax-free from 2018-2020.
However, Pierce, who had been with the district for 18 years, denied any wrongdoing and said she paid for all purchases with her own funds and paid sales tax for the purchases, even citing an email from Amazon that she says provides documentation.
Parkway school board members voted on Jan. 19 to not renew Pierce's contract and placed her on paid administrative leave. That decision came after the board met in executive session during a special meeting to discuss Pierce's employment.
"It was discovered the week of October 27, 2025 that during the years of 2018, 2019 and 2020 Debbie utilized the school's Amazon Business Account to make personal purchases," Young said in an emailed complaint to the Special Investigations Unit. "This was discovered by our Technology Director who was searching for an item he had previously purchased and he came across furniture, a boat cover, toys, groceries, and more. These items were shipped to her, her ex-husband or her two daughters. It has not been ascertained whether she utilized her personal credit card(s) or utilized school funds. At any rate it appears she purchased most items tax free."
In the complaint, Young provided the auditor's office with the complete Amazon order history from 2018-2020.
Pierce allegedly spent $16,319.21 over the three years on personal purchases. According to a statement from the auditor's office, she used her personal credit card but did not pay sales taxes. Not paying sales tax on the purchases would have allegedly saved Pierce $1,183.14, meaning she should have paid $17,502.35.
In February, Pierce maintained she purchased everything with her own credit card and paid sales tax.
"What happened was I used my school email address for my own personal Amazon account for years," Pierce had said. "I never thought twice about it. Then, we got a business account at Parkway, so I told Tina, who was my assistant at the time, 'Well, I can't use my address because I already use my email address for my personal Amazon Prime account' and she said, 'Oh that's fine. I'll just use mine.' So that was great. That worked for, I don't know, 10 years. Well then Tina retired and Lynn became my assistant. Lynn used her school email address. She was only there one year. Now I don't have an assistant, so I really didn't have any choice but to use mine. When I switched to pierced@parkwayschools.org for my Amazon business account, I switched my personal account to … I made a new email account for my personal email and I switched it to that. Well now my personal (order) history shows up on the Parkway account."
Pierce had said when she realized what it looked like, that it appeared as if she used the school's Amazon account to avoid sales tax, she talked with the retailer and stressed she made the purchases, including sales tax, with her personal credit card. According to Pierce, an Amazon representative worked with her and removed her order history associated with her school email until 2020. He couldn't access any purchases earlier than that.
When asked why Pierce used her school email to create an Amazon account, she had said that was the only email she ever really used as it was her work email.
"Why would I, you know, ruin … the whole thing is ludicrous, to get out of paying sales tax," she had said. "I'm denying that I ever misused funds. I'm denying that I ever used the school's Amazon account for personal purchases. I regret using pierced@parkwayschools.org to set up my own personal Amazon Prime account, but I don't think there's anything illegal about that."
Pierce was placed on paid administrative leave until she retired.
Councilors also heard from Young that the district is working with Garmann Miller to update the preschool playground equipment to accommodate state law.
In April, the district hired the architecture firm for $16,000 to start the bidding process for the work.
In March 2024, board members heard a $115,000 proposal to make the preschool playground more accessible and safe for developmentally disabled preschool children.
Officials said at the time the preschool playground limits play for students with differing physical and neurological abilities and poses safety issues.
Snider Recreation of North Royalton gave an estimate to demolish and remove play equipment and mulch, pour rubber play surfacing, and install new equipment. The project would also make the area bigger to make room for the updated ADA-accessible equipment and replacement equipment.
Young had said in April the estimate came in at $140,000. The equipment includes four swings, a large play structure, several free-standing pieces of equipment and an inclusive merry-go-round.
The board has not determined a vendor for the project.
The current playground equipment is "located in a mulched area, which students in wheelchairs are unable to access. Areas of our current climber are open at approximately 5 feet high. This area is currently constantly supervised to ensure students do not jump or walk off or fall," according to an informational handout that was provided to the newspaper in 2024.
Councilors also met in executive session to discuss personnel employment. No action was anticipated after ward.
The board meets next at 6 p.m. Aug. 12 in the community room.
