James Daye denied bid to return to his job at McKinley High
Coach, teacher to remain on paid leave until probe of sex allegations is completed
James Daye’s plea to be returned to his teaching and coaching duties at McKinley High School was rebuffed Wednesday evening.
Instead, the Buffalo Board of Education voted, 8-0, to keep Daye on paid administrative leave until the state completes its investigation of allegations that he had sex with a student while he was a teacher in South Carolina.
The unanimous vote came after Daye told the board that he is the victim of “false allegations and threats” and that McKinley student-athletes are being “deprived” of quality programs in his absence.
“Who will explain to the Mc- Kinley students that a teacher who has not been charged is being condemned?” he said.
Superintendent James A. Williams, who placed Daye on paid administrative leave in March, said in response to Daye’s speech that he will make no further recommendations to the board until the state Education Department probe is finished.
The state has not publicly set a timetable for completion of the investigation and several times has refused to comment on its progress.
“If you care about children, you would want to know the truth,” Williams said. “That’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to do what’s right at Mc- Kinley.”
Later in the meeting — following a closed-door executive session — the eight board members in attendance voted unanimously to keep Daye on administrative leave. Board member Catherine Nugent Panepinto did not attend the meeting.
By the time the vote was taken, most of the audience — including Daye and his attorney, Brian M. Melber— had left, and just a handful of spectators remained. No board members commented publicly on the resolution prior to the vote.
Williams placed Daye on leave shortly after Nena Creech, now a teacher and basketball coach herself, told The Buffalo News in March that she had sex with Daye in the early 1990s while he was a teacher and she was a student at a high school in Greenville, S. C.
Creech, who initially asked Daye for coaching assistance in basketball, said that the help led to her spending time with Daye at his apartment. That led to drinking and socializing and, eventually, having sex with Daye, she said.
Daye did not directly address that claim either Wednesday or during a 2z-hour interview with The News last week. But Melber denied it in a more general way.
“What Mr. Daye has said all along is that he has never had any inappropriate contact or relationship with a student,” Melber said Wednesday. “Period.”
Melber said Daye has never been given formal notice of why he was suspended and is seeking to return to work through both a school system grievance and a court case.
Daye said Wednesday that information — which he did not specify — has been withheld in the case against him but will eventually come to light.
“This whole thing will be rectified, and I will be exonerated,” he said.
Marilyn Nixon, a teacher at McKinley for 24 years, said Daye was effective in both his coaching duties and coordinating the school’s computers and should be returned to work.
“I have not seen a person more dedicated to working with young people than he was,” Nixon said. She added that she is “proud to work with James Daye” and feels McKinley is “blessed” to have him on staff.
Murray Holman, the father of two McKinley students, also asked for Daye’s reinstatement.
“Coach Daye really is a good guy,” he said. “It’s time for Coach Daye to go back to school.”
The board also approved an eight-year labor contract with its teacher’s aides and teacher’s assistants, who had been working under terms of a contract that was supposed to expire in 2004.
District officials described the contract as a major breakthrough and expressed the hope that it will lead to settlements with other unions, including the Buffalo Teachers Federation.
