MSBSD awaits plea to make decision on teacher

PALMER — It remains to be seen whether a longtime Mat-Su Borough School District teacher and coach will keep his job after pleading guilty to felony charges last week of defrauding a local junior hockey booster club of more than $48,000.

A plea agreement is in the works for James “Jamie” Donald Smith Jr., said Lisa Kelley, an assistant attorney general with the state Office of Special Prosecutions. It’s that agreement that vacated a trial for Smith that had been scheduled to start this week. Smith instead is expected to change his plea and be sentenced. Kelley declined to elaborate on what Smith is agreeing to plea to and what his sentence could be. She said her office is working with Smith’s lawyer on a restitution agreement and that it’s likely a guilty plea would be for a felony offense.

“If we go forward, there would be a complete agreement as to all terms,” she said, adding that jail time “is always possible with a felony sentence, but I can’t give you details at this point.”

Although the school district has specific policies in place for new hires with felony convictions on their records, the rules are different for teachers already on staff, said Katherine Gardner, human resources director for the MSBSD.

The policy “prohibits the hire of (persons) with a felony in the previous five years,” Gardner said. “That doesn’t mean we would dismiss someone who was already teaching if they were convicted. … Mr. Jamie Smith is a tenured teacher, and the laws of Alaska are very specific about that.”

The Palmer Grand Jury indicted Smith earlier this year for allegedly defrauding the Alaska Avalanche Junior A hockey program’s booster club of more than $48,000. He’s been charged with five felonies, including two counts of second-degree forgery of legal documents, first-degree theft, scheme to defraud and fraudulent use of an access device.

Smith has remained on the job as a teacher at Mat-Su Career and Technical High School and continues as head coach of the Colony High School varsity hockey program, Gardner said.

Immediately following Smith’s indictment, Gardner said the school district conducted its own investigation to make sure the integrity of any district funds, including booster clubs Smith had contact with, were not compromised.

“We did not find any wrongdoing,” she said about that probe. She also said there is no indication of impropriety connected with Smith’s position as a teacher or during his 16-year term as head hockey coach for Houston High School.

“There were no red flags that we could see and the funds that we reviewed for Colony High School hockey,” she said.

As far as the district is concerned, the jury is still out on whether Smith’s alleged involvement in any fraud during the time he served in multiple front office positions with the Alaska Avalanche from 2005 to 2009, including president of the Spirit Booster Club.

“The standards for teachers and coaches is very different,” she said. “The continuation of his employment as a teacher would not necessarily be the continuation of his employment as a coach (or vise versa).”

The real factor the district will have to consider when a plea is entered in Smith’s case is whether his conviction would violate a moral clause in the district’s contract with its teachers, Gardner said.

“The fact that something is or isn’t a felony in and of itself isn’t the only thing the district looks at,” she said. “Though we certainly understand that something to the degree of a felony versus a misdemeanor, it doesn’t have to be a felony conviction in order to fit within that scope.”

That said, the district is monitoring the progress of the case closely, she said.

“Some of the charges Mr. Smith is facing right now would be considered ethical violations under the Professional Teaching Practices Commission,” Gardner said.

Contact reporter Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.