Former teacher, coach has history with Autauga County school board. Now he wants to join it

PRATTVILLE — A former Autauga County schools employee, who sued the system in 2010, is seeking the District 5 seat on the board of education.

Kyle Glover, a Republican, spent more than 20 years in education in public and private schools as a teacher and coach. His stops included Autaugaville School, Prattville Junior High and Prattville High School. He served as athletic director and head football coach at Wetumpka High School and Marbury High School, and he had a stint as head football coach at Autauga Academy.

He also served about two years as Autauga County Commissioner for District 2, completing the term of former commissioner Danny Chavers, who resigned and later pleaded guilty to stealing money from the Autaugaville water works and sewer department where was director.

Glover ran to keep the seat at the end of his appointed term but was defeated.

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Zoning concerns and a lawsuit

While he was AD and coach at Marbury, Glover said he came across documents that showed about 250 students who should have been zoned for Marbury High but were attending Prattville Junior High and Prattville High School.

Around the same time, the Marbury High athletic booster account came up short of funds. Glover alleged that board members made statements that pointed to him as being responsible for the missing funds. (An officer in the booster club later admitted to taking the money, repaid it, and no one was ever arrested in the case.)

Glover was fired by the school board as AD and head football coach at Marbury during this time.

In 2010 he filed a civil suit against the then superintendent and board, alleging that the school system had conspired to keep the students from attending the school they were zoned for, and accusing district leaders of defaming him, among other allegations. The suit was dismissed Aug. 13, 2014, with a non-disclosure stipulation, court records show.

School board opponent has served 30 years

Current District 5 representative Ledronia Goodwin is the only school board member still in office from when the suit was filed. She declined to comment on the lawsuit or Glover’s candidacy.

“That was a long time ago,” she said of the suit. “The judge entered a non-disclosure clause as part of the settlement, and I will continue to honor the judge’s wishes, even after all these years.

“As to the upcoming election, I am running on my record.”

Goodwin, a Democrat, has served on the board for 30 years. She is seeking her sixth, six-year term. She was first elected in 1992 when District 5 was formed as a minority-majority district to make is easier for Blacks to be elected to the BOE and Autauga County Commission.

Glover, who owns an outdoor advertising agency, said his experience with the board was a driving factor in his decision to run for the school board.

“I don’t want this to ever happen to anyone else,” he said. “I don’t want any other family to go through something like this. What they did then was wrong.”

'It was way bigger than athletics'

Glover defends his decision to file the 2010 lawsuit, which initially named the Montgomery Advertiser and Prattville Progress. Both printed comments from some board members that Glover alleged were slander, the suit states. The newspapers were later dropped from the suit.

“People look at it as just a zoning issue and say, ‘Well, this football coach is just mad he isn’t getting the athletes that should be going to his school,” he said. “But it’s bigger than that. I found out that about 250 kids should have been going to Marbury.

“The state funds schools and determines teacher units based on enrollment. Marbury was losing out on about 21 teacher units by those students not attending. That affected the entire school and the entire community of Marbury. It was way bigger than athletics.”

Glover said the past board singled him out.

“If I see something wrong, I’m going to speak up,” he said. “I had the audacity of not bowing down to the altar that was Prattville junior and high school athletics at the time.

“I’d do the same thing today.”

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Marty Roney at mroney@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Former school employee who sued Autauga BOE seeks board slot