ADAMS TWP — Mars football players, parents and community members showed a great deal of support for newly hired coach Zachary Benedek on Tuesday night, but the hiring process caused some displeasure in the community.

At Mars school board’s March 3 meeting, some parents criticized the district over a supposed lack of transparency and unwillingness to take feedback from community members.

Benedek was hired by the school board in a 7-2 vote after an effort to table the hiring failed.

Board member Aaron Rose provided a draft policy for board consideration that would create a new, official advisory council in the case of any varsity head coaching vacancies.

The council would include the superintendent, the athletic director, all board members who choose to participate, up to three representatives from the sport’s booster organization, the outgoing coach if invited to participate by the superintendent and four to eight parents from the team’s players from all four grade levels.

Booster representatives would be selected based on the bylaws of each booster organization.

According to the draft, the council would serve in an advisory capacity to assist in the screening and evaluation process of considering coach candidates.

The council would conduct interviews in a public forum, “in accordance with applicable state laws and district policies.”

However, the council would not possess the final authority to approve a hiring — that decision is made by the school board during public meetings.

The board has not yet considered the policy proposal in a public forum and plans to consider it at a future meeting.

Superintendent Mark Gross lauded the community’s passion over wanting to see a hiring process that took the community into consideration and said there was respect even from those who were angry about the process.

“What I’m hearing is that we’ve got a great candidate, but because of the way the process was, you feel it could have been better,” Gross said. “I’m good with that. I’m good with whatever the board’s willing to do.”