LANSING, Mich. — During its meeting Thursday night, the Lansing School District Board of Trustees decided to not renew Deputy Superintendent Mark Coscarella's contract with the district.
The unanimous decision comes after FOX 47 first reported in October Coscarella sexually harassed a student teacher in 2002.
At the time, Coscarella was the top candidate to be Lansing's next superintendent.
“Frankly, the Board (of Education) trusted Dr. Coscarella to tell us the whole truth,” said Lansing School District Board of Education president Gabrielle Lawrence. “In the end, tonight I feel that trust has been betrayed. He didn’t tell us the whole truth.”
The school board voted 8-0 with one member absent, for Coscarella's non-renewal after a 20 minute closed-door session.
Lansing school board president Gabrielle Lawrence said even though Coscarella's contract isn't going to be renewed, he is still getting paid while on leave.
"We know we're confident in our investigator's report and we know what the result will be of non-renewal of the contract," she told FOX 47 Thursday.
Lawrence said the reason Coscarella wasn't fired is because that would require another level of investigation, that wouldn't be feasible.
Coscarella's conduct initially came into question when Casey Sterle told Fox 47 in October Coscarella locked his classroom door, took off his clothes and propositioned her, while she was student teacher at Holt Public Schools.
When that story broke, Coscarella was the leading candidate to be Lansing's next superintendent.
As the events unfolded, the board went with a nationwide search and is interviewing seven candidates next week.
Lawrence is hoping the search process will move the district past the investigation.
"We really hope these people we are bringing in for interviews next week are not distracted by this huge distraction," said Lawrence.
Lawrence said whoever is named the next superintendent will decide who replaces Coscarella.
"As far as the board is concerned our executive team members are members of our family," said Lawrence
His current contract with the district ends on June 30th.
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