LANSING — Former Lansing School District Deputy Superintendent Mark Coscarella was the frontrunner to become the next superintendent, until a 20-year-old sexual harassment claim resurfaced and led to his resignation.

The district's Board of Education accepted the resignation at a meeting held Thursday via Zoom. The resignation comes after a school district investigator found evidence supporting a sexual harassment claim against him. The incident had occurred in 2000 and was reported to authorities in 2002. At that time, Coscarella was a teacher at Holt's Elliott Elementary and coached the Holt baseball team.

Coscarella was considered likely to replace Yvonne Caamal Canul after she retired last year. He went on paid administrative leave Nov. 14, shortly after the sexual harassment claim was reported by media. He denied the allegation on multiple occasions.

Board President Gabrielle Lawrence said Coscarella will not return to the district in any role under the terms of his resignation agreement. She declined to say whether the agreement included a payment to Coscarella or to discuss additional details on Thursday night.

"I am happy that this issue has been resolved," Lawrence said. "I’m disappointed that it came to this, but I’m looking forward to deliberating as a board and moving forward with our second round of interviews to hire our new superintendent."

Coscarella's attorney, Jeffrey Donahue, could not be reached for comment.

Coscarella's contract was set to expire on June 30 and board members had already voted to consider not renewing it on March 5, a day after the State Journal obtained copies of the school district investigator's report.

Casey Sterle, now a teacher with Leslie Public Schools, was a teaching intern assigned to Coscarella's classroom in 2000. On April 11 of that year, Sterle said Coscarella asked her to meet with him after school, closed and locked his classroom door, stripped to his underwear and danced in front of her.

She reported the incident to an Ingham County sheriff’s deputy in 2002 and filed a report. Coscarella never touched her, Sterle said, so the conduct was not considered a crime. Criminal sexual conduct requires contact, according to Michigan law. Indecent exposure was also ruled out since state statute requires exposed buttocks or genitalia.

Sterle didn't immediately report the incident to authorities in 2000 because she thought Coscarella wouldn't be a threat to children, she said to investigators. But in 2002, she learned that Coscarella had been accused of letting student athletes watch pornography during a Holt High School baseball team trip to Florida. That prompted her to make a police report.

The Holt Board of Education accepted Coscarella's resignation on July 30, 2002, a week after the Ingham County prosecutor rejected a sheriff's department request for charges tied to the pornography allegations.

Holt school officials also had spoken with Sterle in 2002, and notified her of the resignation.

Lawrence said the Lansing School District was unaware of the allegations when they hired Coscarella. Sterle reported her incident in a letter to Lansing school board members last year, when it looked like Coscarella would replace Caamal Canul.

After the allegation was public, listening sessions seeking community input into Lansing's superintendent search were filled with concerned parents asking the board not to hire Coscarella.

The district had planned to consider only internal candidates for the superintendent job, but eventually expanded the search to include outside candidates. They board also named Sam Sinicropi, a veteran district administrator, to serve as interim superintendent on Dec. 19.

The superintendent search was delayed while schools are closed due to the new coronavirus, but the board plans to resume the process Thursday by selecting candidates to invite for a second round of interviews.

"I’m glad that the board was able to take this action so we can move on and focus on important things," said Vice President Rachel Willis.

Contact Mark Johnson at 517-377-1026 or at majohnson2@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ByMarkJohnson.