(KATE ALBRIGHT/FILE PHOTO)
Montclair High School Athletic Director Patrick Scarpello has accepted a job in a Pennsylvania school district.
Scarpello will be the athletic director for the New Hope-Solebury School District in New Hope, Pennsylvania. His appointment was approved by the New Hope-Solebury School Board at its Oct. 27 meeting. The board meeting agenda shows Scarpello’s start date as “to be decided.” His salary will be $105,000 plus benefits.
Scarpello’s salary in the Montclair district is $146,802, according to the 2022-23 schools budget. He has been the athletic director since 2017.
Scarpello’s New Hope approval came the day before news broke that the Montclair High School football team was forced to forfeit its four season victories and its eligibility for the state playoffs.
The Montclair-Ridgewood game in the North 2 Group 5 state playoffs was canceled Friday night after it was found that the Montclair football team had played with an academically ineligible student during the current season. Montclair was 4-4 heading into the game.
The district was notified by former Montclair High School football coach John Fiore about the issue, David Cantor, executive director of communications and community engagement for the Montclair school district, said.
Fiore said that he received an anonymous phone call Thursday night about the issue and that he immediately called current Montclair head coach Johnson about the allegations of the academically ineligible student.
“We learned last night that an academically ineligible student was allowed to play for the Montclair High School football team this season due to an administrative oversight,” Montclair School Superintendent Jonathan Ponds announced on Friday. “We immediately reported the situation to the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, which informed us that the team has to forfeit its wins this year and is therefore ineligible for the state playoffs, including tonight’s game against Ridgewood.”
On Friday, Cantor wrote that an investigation into retrieving the student information came up empty.
“Based on our discussions today, we aren’t able to determine how a student’s academic information was shared,” wrote Cantor on Friday night.
On Monday, Cantor said the district had uncovered no additional information in its investigation.
Montclair players first heard of trouble with their program Thursday night on social media. Students from Ridgewood posted to Snapchat that its playoff game with Montclair was not going to be played because the Mounties had been banned, junior football players Kal Wilson, Tyler Porter, Leland Rogers and freshman Rayan Bounkit said.
“It frustrates everyone, especially the seniors,” Wilson said. “We have next year, but the seniors have no chance. It got stripped away.”