Alhambra football coach Joe Kanach resigned after the School District launched an investigation and placed him on leave

“The school had been doing some research on Mr. Kanach and so we did have him go on leave so that we could do more research and that’s all that I can share with you. When there are concerns we do our fact-finding process at the school site and that is a requirement.” — Alhambra Unified School District Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Jenny Cheng said.

By Lauren Gold, SGVN

ALHAMBRA – Alhambra High School football coach Joe Kanach resigned as a coach and science teacher at the school, district officials said Tuesday.

Kanach had not been in the classroom or on the football field since Oct.5, Alhambra Unified School District Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Jenny Cheng said.

She said AHS and the district had been looking into Kanach for a number of weeks before placing him on leave, but could not say what sparked the investigation. Cheng said the “research” was not due to a complaint by a student. Kanach resigned late Monday.

“The school had been doing some research on Mr. Kanach and so we did have him go on leave so that we could do more research and that’s all that I can share with you,” Cheng said. “When there are concerns we do our fact-finding process at the school site and that is a requirement.”

Cheng said the district was not aware of Kanach’s history at other schools, including a reproval for misconduct he received on his teaching credential in July 2010.

“We do a thorough research on our teachers, but we didn’t hire him in 2010, we hired him in August of this year, and so we wouldn’t have noted the July 2010 information,” Cheng said.

According to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, Kanach was issued a warning for “conduct (that was) not appropriate for a credential holder.” The warning did not result in the revocation of Kanach’s credential.

Kanach coached two seasons at Hawthorne High School, and also previously coached for a few weeks at Springfield High School in Oregon. Kanach resigned from Hawthorne at the end of last season for “personal reasons.”

Bob Cox, assistant superintendent of human resources at Centinela Valley Union High School District where Hawthorne is located, said the 2010 warning was not on Kanach’s record when the district reviewed Kanach during the hiring process.

“We have never received anything from the commission,” he said.

Cox said he could not comment on why Kanach left Hawthorne, but said “a number of (probationary) employees” were not hired as permanent teachers on March 15, the deadline for districts to evaluate current teachers.

He added that in cases where teachers are put on leave, the district is usually conducting a serious investigation.

“You can’t really read an end result of the investigation into that but you can know the district took it seriously enough that they felt the employee couldn’t be working while being investigated,” Cox said.

Kanach did not return repeated calls for comment.

lauren.gold@sgvn.com, 626-578-6300, ext. 4586

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