LAST PARAGRAPH UPDATED 6/12 1:36 p.m.
He gets $50,000 for leaving, and can’t work for the Galesburg School District again.
Those are some of the details of a “resignation agreement” between the Galesburg School District, and now-former Galesburg Football coach and security officer Derrek Blackwell.
WGIL obtained the agreement through a Freedom of Information Act request. The Galesburg School Board approved the agreement Monday night.
Blackwell, according to the agreement, resigned effective last Friday, after being on paid leave since his arrest in late-April in connection with an alleged domestic violence incident, and for which he’s in a court-related diversion program. Blackwell claimed to Galesburg Police he didn’t hit a woman inside his home, but did admit to a loud argument taking place.
Blackwell, in addition to resigning as head football coach and security officer, also resigned as an assistant boys track coach, and as 7th grade boys basketball coach.
In addition to the money and ban from district work, the agreement indicates Blackwell must release the school board from any further legal-related issues, and that it is not an admission of wrongdoing by any party.
While the agreement indicates Blackwell is executing “an irrevocable letter of resignation,” his mother suggested Blackwell was being forced into it. The document also says, however, the entering into the agreement is a “voluntary act.”
The $50,000 payment must be made within ten days of the date of the agreement, effective June 7.
Blackwell told WGIL Monday night he would comment further once he received what was coming to him in the agreement.
District 205 is expected to hire an interim football coach for the coming school year, then look for a more permanent coach the following year.
WGIL has learned he $50,000 will come from the district’s Legal Fund (often covered through a “tort/liability” section of a property tax levy). We’re still attempting to learn what Blackwell made in coaching stipends, prior to his resignation.
D. Blackwell Resignation by WGIL Radio on Scribd
