Baldwin Football Coaches Lose Dean of Students Jobs

Peter Wagner Jr., who will start his first season as Baldwin High School's head football coach this fall, lost his job as Baldwin High's dean of students on Wednesday night, effective June 30.

The Baldwin-Whitehall School Board, with a 7-2 vote at its meeting this week, eliminated the high school's and J.E. Harrison Middle School's dean positions.

That affects Mike Voelker, as well. Voelker, the high school football team's defensive coordinator and an assistant boys basketball coach (head jayvee basketball coach), is the dean of students at J.E. Harrison Middle.

Board members Tracy Macek and Larry Pantuso cast the "no" votes when it came to eliminating the positions.

Wagner has been the dean of students at Baldwin for the past four years, while Voelker held the same job at J.E. Harrison for the past three. Voelker explained during a March 2012 interview that his duties at Harrison centered around student discipline, something that was handled by the school's vice principals before he took the dean's job.

The dean of students' jobs in the Baldwin-Whitehall School District are not the same as principals' or vice principals', but the school board did hire another vice principal on Wednesday night. John Saras, a math teacher at Harrison, is the newest vice principal at the high school, joining Janeen Peretin and Jonathan Peebles.

The board gave Saras his new job by an 8-1 vote. Only Macek dissented.

Both Wagner (6-3 board vote) and Voelker (7-2 vote) will be "reassigned to another professional position (in the district) on the basis of seniority rights and certification," according to board minutes. Board members Macek, Pantuso and Martin Michael Schmotzer voted "no" on that Wagner item, while Macek and Pantuso voted "no" on that Voelker item.