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Monroe Searches for Coach : Fluker Denied Basketball Post

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Times Staff Writer

Monroe High has renewed its search for a basketball coach after its appointee to the position was disqualified for failing to pass a teachers’ test.

Wayne Fluker, 29, was tentatively hired in May by then-Monroe Principal John Anderson to coach the varsity and junior varsity basketball teams and teach classes in health and physical education.

Fluker’s hiring, however, was contingent on his earning a teaching credential. To earn the credential at Cal State Northridge, he had to complete a student-teaching assignment at Beverly Hills High and pass the California Basic Educational Skills Test, which he took in June.

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Fluker met the student-teaching requirement--it eventually was waived by the CSUN teaching credential office--but failed the writing proficiency portion of the CBEST. He was relieved of his duties at Monroe last week.

“We’d love to have him,” Monroe assistant principal Daryl Turner said Monday. “But Wayne did not meet all the criteria established by our administration.”

According to Fluker, a 1987 graduate of CS Northridge with a BS in physical education, he passed the math and reading comprehension portions of the CBEST but fell two points shy of the minimum writing proficiency requirements.

“I’m not bitter with Monroe,” Fluker said. “They’ve treated me fairly. But I am disappointed in myself for not passing it the first time, and I am disappointed in the rules, which don’t allow for an appeals process.”

Fluker said he wanted to take the CBEST again in August but failed to meet the application deadline because he received the test results on the final day of registration.

He called the state CBEST center that afternoon but was informed that the center had to have the application that day.

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“There’s no way I could get it to them that quickly,” Fluker said.

Fluker then applied for an emergency teaching credential, but it was denied because he had failed a portion of the CBEST. He is registered to take the test again in October, but Monroe expects to fill the vacancy within the next two weeks.

Turner said that Joan Elam, who replaced Anderson as Monroe’s principal, has some candidates in mind but would not disclose their names.

“We’re hoping to hire someone within the next two weeks,” Turner said.

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