TSSAA refutes two allegations by outgoing Trezevant principal

Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association executive director Bernard Childress said Friday he is aware of the allegations made in a letter by outgoing Trezevant High School principal Ronnie Mackin.

Mackin — who is resigning over the way he says Shelby County Schools handled a grading scandal uncovered at the school in August — made numerous allegations in his resignation letter, among them "students GPAs (grade-point averages) were being inflated along with providing credit for classes they did not pass."

"We are aware of this," Childress said in a statement to the USA Today Network-Tennessee. "We looked at all of the academic allegations along with this principal and his administration last year and could not find any athletes involved. We do not know what changed his mind."

Childress questioned the allegation that Trezevant manipulated its enrollment totals so  it could compete in a lower classification. The Bears have won the last two state football titles in Class 2A, the second-smallest Division I classification.

Childress said the number used in enrollment comes from the school system's board of education and is cross-checked with what is turned into the state. In turn, that number helps determine funding given to a school. A smaller number than actual enrollment would hurt the school's funding.

In 2014, Shelby County Schools reported an enrollment of 568 at Trezevant, which put them in Class 2A. In Mackin's letter he stated that former Bears coach Teli White reported an enrollment of 400.

Childress told USA Today Network-Tennessee that the TSSAA would have "chuckled at that" because it doesn't take enrollment figures from coaches. And even if the enrollment was 400, it would have still put Trezevant in Class 2A.

Trezevant will compete as a Class 3A school starting this season as all Division I schools are now divided evenly over six classifications. The reported enrollment figure for 2017-18 was 615.

Childress said he wasn't aware of any allegations that athletes were paid or that parents were paid to send children to Trezevant.

White — now at Melrose — said he had no comment on Mackin's letter.

Reach John Varlas at john.varlas@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @johnvarlas. Contributing: Tom Kreager