Seems like that they have used City Hall's management and human relations style as a role model to conduct business and planning.

Charter school coach is denying all 3 new charges

COTTON DELO-- JERSEY JOURNAL - JAN 27

The suspended basketball coach of CREATE Charter High School in Jersey City is being accused of misappropriating funds, putting an ineligible player on the court and harassing a co-worker.

The coach, Darrell Moody, who also serves as the school's administrative assistant in discipline, has denied the charges, which were revealed Thursday night during a hearing of the school's board of trustees. The board will reconvene Wednesday to vote on whether to fire him.

Making the case for termination, school administrator Steve Lipski said Moody failed to submit documentation to the school's athletic director about a T-shirt fund-raiser he held. Lipski said the shirts were never delivered and no records have been provided about how much money was raised.

Moody, 33, who attended the hearing, countered that he had submitted a money order recording the profit and had been in phone contact with the T-shirt company and would try to get an invoice by Wednesday.

The second charge is that Moody played an academically ineligible student in a Jan. 17 game in West Caldwell, which he also denied. Harassment and insubordination charges have also been leveled against him in connection with two run-ins he allegedly had with the girls basketball coach, Fara Wilensky, who was not at Thursday's meeting.

Thursday's meeting was attended by about 50 of Moody supporters, mostly students and some parents and faculty.

"He's taught us to be responsible, respectful young men," said senior Keith Williams, 17.

Thursday's hearing was not the first time Moody's fitness to work in a school has been called into question.

In 2001, Moody - then a sixth-grade teacher at Jersey City's School 9 - was charged with endangering the welfare of a child after two School 9 students and two other boys spent a night at his home and watched pornographic videos, according to police.

Moody left the Jersey City public schools but still has his elementary school teaching license.

Lipski said he wasn't aware of the incident when Moody was hired and that he had passed state fingerprinting tests required for school employees.

COTTON DELO can be reached at cdelo@jjournal.com