Former Cheektowaga-Sloan football coach and former Athletic Director described as problematic, underperforming, and consistently absent is set to return to work at the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year after being put on unpaid leave for the entirety of the current school year.
The now-current math teacher Mark Ostempowski has been on unpaid leave after assaulting a female high school teacher in February of this year by slapping her on the bottom at a teacher’s union gathering outside of the school district. The teacher never submitted a formal police report, expressing in a correspondence written to the district that she “wishes to report this incident with the hope the school will take any corrective action necessary to ensure that Mr. Ostempowksi does not engage in this type of behavior again.”
This resulted in the district beginning the 3020-A process, which is required to terminate a tenured teacher in New York State. This process subsequently led to a hearing in June 2024, which found him guilty of misconduct, conduct unbecoming a teacher, immoral character, and neglect of duty.
During this hearing, current High School Principal Robert Julian tore into Ostempowski’s character describing him as “one of my most problematic, negative, and disgruntled teachers.” Julian further went on to say Ostempowski was consistently absent and tried to intimidate him and other students. Julian also described his time as the Athletic Director for the district as an “underperformance” citing complaints from Section VI, lack of policies and procedures, and overall lackluster performance of the athletic programs before Ostempowski’s eventual resignation in late 2019.
Superintendent Andrea Galenski went on to mention her shock over a 2007 memo of the former Superintendent reprimanding Ostempowski over explicit language and inequitable application of the academic eligibility policy to the district's football program in which he was the head coach at the time.
This would not be the only time Ostempowski committed foul play. Another coach who faced the school’s football team while Ostempowski was an assistant coach told WBFO he was obviously and actively undermining the Head Coach at the time. Further, he stated he would nod his head in agreement with the crowd when the Head Coach made a call he didn’t like.
Despite the described behavior, the only disciplinary record the district retains of his is the 2007 memo. Due to the relatively clean record and the district not examining any other possible consequence except a termination hearing, Officer Rocco Scanza denied the district’s request to terminate Ostempowski. Rather, he was placed on unpaid leave and was required to complete at least one sexual harassment course and undergo a psychological evaluation. The district appealed this decision in September and it is unclear when the matter will be resolved in Erie County Supreme Court.
Numerous district officials and the attorneys representing Ostempowski and the district have ignored WBFO’s request for comment.
