Coach Danny Tennant has spent 37 years teaching and coaching at Parkersburg Catholic High School. As soon as possible after graduating from Marshall University, he returned to serve and work at his beloved school. He and his wife Judy, both alumni of the school, put all seven of their children through Parkersburg Catholic schools and have been active in the school and church communities for all of their lives. This year, Danny was informed mere weeks before school started that his full-time job had been reduced to part-time and that, amid a global pandemic, he would lose not only a significant portion of his salary, but his health benefits as well. All of this at age 61, while masks were not being required in classrooms and before he is eligible for retirement or to receive Medicare.

OUR GOAL:
We want Coach Danny Tennant to be reinstated full-time for the next 4 years until he reaches retirement age. If not, we would like Danny to receive a severance package that pays him and covers health insurance until age 65.

This is possible because the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston can afford:
- extravagant lifestyle of Michael Bransfield that included $21 million taken from a hospital to be used at his discretion.
- $2.4 million spent on travel for Michael Bransfield
- A $2,250 monthly stipend and health insurance for Michael Bransfield - a decision made in August 2020.
- $55.1 million in mineral rights assets ALONE.

Please help us to convince the diocese and school administration to do the right thing and take care of a man who has dedicated so much of his life to the church, the school, and the families of his community.

*Artwork by Christopher Reifsteck

Petition Letter Text:

Picture a 24-year-old man offered a teaching and coaching position at his beloved alma mater. This man eagerly accepts the job because he feels called to serve the Catholic community that raised him. He wants to positively impact young lives, and for nearly 40 years he does just that. Along the way, through his many achievements, there are opportunities to take his talents elsewhere with higher pay and better benefits. However, he continues to prioritize serving his church and his school community so that he can teach his deeply-held beliefs and values every day and he and his wife can raise all seven of their children in the Catholic school system which they both hold so dear.

This man, Danny Tennant, should be reinstated as a full-time faculty member at Parkersburg Catholic High School for the 2020-2021 school year and for the following three years, at which time he will be eligible for retirement. If this is not possible, we seek a severance package that will continue to pay him his current salary and benefits until he reaches retirement age in December of 2023. Danny is a devoted servant, the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston can afford it, and it is the right thing to do.

Mr. Tennant’s children remember Sunday mornings when he, an often quiet man, would sing at the top of his lungs at mass. It was frequently a joke among their friends that they could hear him no matter where they sat in the sanctuary. This man has an unfailing faith and devotion to God, and that is evident through his work. Danny has dedicated his entire adult life to teaching and coaching the students of Parkersburg Catholic High School. He used his humble salary to put all seven of his children through Catholic schools—something for which he has had to sacrifice so much. Beyond his own family, he has poured his blood, sweat, and tears into the Parkersburg Catholic community. He is truly a devoted servant.

Anyone affiliated with Catholic education knows that Catholic school teachers do not receive the same pay or benefits as those in public education. Instead, they see the value that Catholic education provides, and they are willing to sacrifice in order to be a contributing part of it. It is hurtful to learn that the institution that helped to raise Danny, his wife, Judy, and their children has been so quick to discard this man. He has put his whole life into his work only for the leadership of his beloved school to leave him behind at the bitter end. He is a few years short of retirement but is not being supported by our leaders in these difficult times we are facing. Instead, he has been given an impossible choice: to embark on a new and unappealing position that would split his time between the elementary (a setting in which he has neither experience nor interest) and secondary schools, work part-time with no benefits, or lose his job. Where is the compassion? The support? The commitment?

Our solution is an affordable one for the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston. Parkersburg Catholic High School, this Christ-centered, Catholic community, is governed by a diocese that has repeatedly turned its eyes from financial and sexual scandal over the years, putting more and more innocent people at risk. This same diocese recently published a non-apology from the former bishop, Michael Bransfield, stating that his earnings each month have been reduced—yes, reduced, not ended as they should be—after the horrific acts he has committed. Now this school within that same diocese is throwing one of its most faithful servants to the wolves when he is so close to a retirement age that would give him better security. With which part of Christ’s teachings does that align? Surely an organization who  receives an incredible amount of revenue in mineral rights assets as a result of oil and gas properties in Texas—at the end of the 2018-2019 fiscal year, mineral rights assets came to a total of $51.5 million—can afford to provide Danny Tennant health coverage during a global pandemic. Certainly this same diocese, which allowed millions of dollars to be lavishly squandered by a former bishop but who continues to provide him monthly payments and health insurance could manage to pay Mr. Tennant’s humble salary—a salary that totals less than Bransfield’s annual “stipend.”

These are difficult times for many of us. We are in the midst of a global pandemic, during which Mr. Tennant’s age alone puts him in a higher-risk category. To add insult to injury, masks are not even being required in classrooms. Yet he is being asked to step into those classrooms and potentially expose himself to a deadly virus while being compensated half of his expected salary and with absolutely no health coverage. Not only that, due to his reduced pay he has stopped payments into his retirement account and his life insurance. That is a sacrifice far too great. It is beyond shameful to ask it of anyone.

As corruption and clericalism are discovered in leadership roles of the Catholic church—both in the local diocese and in national headlines, it is easy to want to step away and denounce association because of the tragic and even disgusting happenings that come to light. It is so incredibly frustrating knowing that there is money being allocated in questionable and unjustifiable ways, but not to fund the position and health of a lifelong servant to Parkersburg Catholic. Many of us find peace in knowing that Christ is constant. He is here, loving as ever. It is such a shame when His body does not represent Him well. And we desperately want to believe that the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston wants to, and will, do better.

To leadership at the school and in the diocese, we implore you to reevaluate your stance, and to consider not what is financially advantageous alone, but rather what is honorable, fair, righteous, and what honors the Lord. We request that you use the power in your hands for the good of the faithful, rather than withholding what is good and fair from a man who has lived for faithfulness, not success.

“Honor the Lord with your wealth, with first fruits of all your produce… Do not withhold good from whom it is due, when it is in your power to act.” -Proverbs 3: 9, 27