In March, the West Mifflin Area school board commended girls varsity basketball coach Phil Shar and the Lady Titans team for being section champs for four consecutive years and WPIAL runners-up for two years in a row.

Tomorrow night, the board will vote on whether or not Mr. Shar can continue as head coach, a position he has held for 19 years, compiling an overall record of 379-153.

The outcome of the vote will determine if the board supports the longtime coach and retired math teacher or district Superintendent Patrick Risha, who abruptly opened Mr. Shar's contract on May 27 after the coach made disparaging comments about the superintendent to local newspapers.

Mr. Risha said he opened Mr. Shar's contract because "I cannot let any employee do what he did in the newspapers."

Mr. Shar first criticized Mr. Risha to local papers last month when he got word that a new provision in the recently approved early bird teachers contract gives teachers first opportunity for any extra duty positions in the district for which they are qualified.

That criticism came even though Mr. Risha said he had worked out an agreement with the teachers union that the provision would not be enforced for the girls head basketball coach position for three years, allowing Mr. Shar to coach the girls who just finished their freshman year through graduation.

But Mr. Shar was not happy with the three-year limit on his ability to coach and accused Mr. Risha of trying to get rid of him because he has spoken up at board meetings against Mr. Risha's plans for a new middle school and a possible tax hike for next year.

As a result, Mr. Shar publicly accused Mr. Risha of not caring about the student-athletes and suggested that if he continued to accept the three-year provision he would be coaching "under a reign of terror."

He also accused the superintendent of being "an absentee superintendent" and revealed that Mr. Risha works from his home in Belle Vernon, about 18 miles away from his district office.

Though Mr. Risha initially did not make himself available to respond to Mr. Shar's comments, he eventually acknowledged to the Post-Gazette that he works from home and that district administrators make trips to his home for meetings.

The superintendent said the arrangement was approved by the school board because he suffers from weight-related health issues that make it difficult for him to sit at a desk for more than two hours at a time.

He said he is under a doctor's supervision as he prepares for gastric bypass surgery.

School board President Ned Mervos confirmed that Mr. Risha has the board's permission to work from home. But Mr. Mervos and the rest of the board have remained silent on the opening of Mr. Shar's contract.

Both topics have been the subject of numerous postings on the West Mifflin community page of the Web site Topix.com.

Arising from the electronic discussion is a Web site www.firerisha.org, which posts articles concerning issues Mr. Risha has been involved with over the years.

Mr. Shar has reapplied for the coaching position, but said he's not certain whether he has enough public support to convince the board to rehire him.

"When the people leave the meeting tomorrow, they should know who voted to hire me and who voted to fire me. That's all I ask," Mr. Shar said.

The West Mifflin Area school board will meet tomorrow in the board room of the West Mifflin Borough Building, 3000 Lebanon Church Road.

A workshop session begins at 6:30 p.m., followed by the regular meeting 7:30 at which the board will vote on the coaching position.