HUNTINGTON — A Spring Valley High School (SVHS) basketball coach is suing the Wayne County Board of Education and Principal John Hayes alleging he has been defamed over alleged misuse of funds.
Cory Maynard has taught special education, health and physical education at SVHS for 18 years and has been the school's boys' basketball coach, according to a June 14 complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.
Maynard claims he helped with the Timberwolf Basketball Camp for several years until around 2018. While he was over the camp, which had no affiliation with the school, he would use his own personal funds, as well as funds collected from students enrolled in the camp, to operate the camp.
Maynard and his wife would use their personal funds to pay for students who wanted to attend the camp but could not afford to do so. Maynard also kept the money for the camp in a separate account specifically for the camp.
After Maynard stopped running the camp, he continued to teach at the school and never received any allegations of inappropriate activity involving the camp, according to the suit.
Hayes was assigned to the school at the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year and did not approve of Maynard as the basketball coach and allegedly began a personal campaign to discredit and embarrass him.
In May, Maynard even had to appear in front of the school board members to discuss the financial issues related to the camp due to Hayes’ campaign. After that meeting, Maynard was informed that no actionable misconduct was found to have happened, but he and his wife would still be investigated for misuse of school funds.
“Despite not finding any wrongdoing, however, the WCBOE, by its attorney, now advised that the WCBOE was investigating the Maynards’ involvement in booster funds raised to purchase school uniforms,” the complaint states.
Maynard and his wife have raised booster funds for several years from independent fundraisers for the school’s basketball teams and when Hayes began to accuse Maynard of the misuse of funds, his wife was in the process of paying a vendor for fundraiser items.
The complaint states that when the accusations occurred, Hayes took control of the funding and transactions.
“Although neither Spring Valley High School or Defendant Hayes had any involvement in running the independent fundraisers, much less any dealings with the uniform vendor, Defendant Hayes wrested control of the funds raised through sales of apparel from Ms. Maynard, and unilaterally decided that he would now handle the transactions involving the same.”
The defendants' efforts have caused the Maynards to suffer extreme stress, embarrassment and loss of reputation within the community, according to the suit.
Cory Mayard and his wife, Amanda Maynard, are seeking compensatory and punitive damages. They are represented by Hoyt E. Glazer, Abraham J. Saad and Eric B. Anderson of Glazer Saad Anderson in Huntington.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number: 3:21-cv-00342
