After reading, the Saturday Lamar Democrat, I felt compelled to write a little more about the extra duty pay situation in the Lamar R-1 School District.
The article was written by Chris Morrow, who worked for me for a brief time in the 1990s at The Carthage Press. He writes, "Another point of contention regarded the increase of the coaching stipends. The budget called for increases for coaches and the band director. However, other extracurricular stipends for the sponsors of programs like VICA and DECA were not increased."
Morrow writes that R-1 Athletic Director Iver Johnson looked into how much pay coaches were receiving at other Big Eight Conference schools and the increases were needed to bring Lamar into line with those.
That was apparently enough to satisfy the four board members who voted in favor of the budget. What I did not read (and I guarantee you that if it had been mentioned, Chris would have written about it) was all the research the district did to find out how much people are getting paid to work with extracurricular academic programs (and I am not just talking about DECA and VICA, but a wide variety of other activities). It wasn't mentioned, because no one looked into it.
It wasn't mentioned, I am sure, because it never occurred to anybody to look into it.
Most likely, if it had been looked into, it would have been discovered that these people are being paid next to nothing. And that's a shame. What a wonderful opportunity to set a school district apart by stressing academics first.
Later in his article, Chris writes, "Board member Michelle Crockett questioned the salary of librarians and counselors. Before the revenue problems of the last few years, counselors and librarians had been on a 10-month pay schedule. However, they were dropped back to a nine-month schedule. This budget calls for librarians to receive an additional one week of pay for 2005-2006 and counselors to receive two. 'My concern is that it used to be that both had a month,' said Crockett, who went on to point out the disparity of the increases.' "
I must not know much about running a school district. My inclination would have to been to have returned the counselors and librarians to 10-month schedules and held the line on the stipend increase for coaches.
That's my answer, here was the one that the Democrat reports R-1 Superintendent Mike Resa giving Mrs. Crockett: "We are gradually adding things back. We are bringing it along slowly. That is the best answer I can give you."
I would be willing to bet that answer did not satisfy Mrs. Crockett or most of the patrons of the Lamar R-1 School District.
8 comments:
I agree that it would be nice to be able to put librarians, counselors, the AD, ect... back on a 10 month contract, but, if you will do a little more research, you will find out just how bad Lamar's situation was when Dr. Burns retired as superintendent. It was BAD. You are correct in stating that it there should have been more research done, and you are probably right in the fact that no one thought of it. Hopefully, by next year, things will be back to "somewhat" normal in the Lamar R-l district. Mr. Resa's answer to Mrs. Crockett's question was not what any of us wanted to hear, but it was the truth. It takes time to recover from the mess of three years ago.
In considering the entire picture, do you not need to keep in mind the amount of revenue a particular activity might contribute to a school district? You are correct in your assessment of the educationally correct thing to do, but the reality still exists. We are in a battle for funds to support the education of our children. We get little or no help for the political side. In fact, the district should be run like a business. An activity that has the potential to bring in revenue, should be maximized. You must accept the reality that sports programs bring in revenue while these other programs do not.
How much revenue does the sports programs generate for the school? You'll need to subtract the stipends of the coaches. Mind you the teacher/student ratio for football is 1/10. Can you believe that? The classrooms are packed with a ratio of 1/24. Oh, but that's okay since sports bring in the big bucks.
Perhaps part of the problem comes with the mindset. When I read the article in the Democrat in which one of the board members said it was absolutely necessary to have four or five assistant football coaches, I could see a problem. I would like to see the Democrat get a list (and these are public records) of how much of a stipend people are paid for every extracurricular activity, before and after these increases were approved.
My intention was not to place value on one extra curricular activity over another. Can you not agree that a winning sports team puts peoples butts and wallets in the seats? Those people purchase concessions, t-shirts, stadium seats, etc. Those same people have a different attitude when it comes to matters requiring financial support. You don't have a lot of time to win their support. Once the kids graduate, their attitudes are apt to change. Invest where you have the best chance for a return is all I'm saying.
Very few high school sports actually bring in enough revenue to pay for the sport. All they do is help to defer the total cost of the program They are by no means a money maker. Schools are fat with administrators who draw big bucks but actually do very little. Until schools start stressing academics over sports they will continue to flounder at the polls. People are tired of all the fluff and drivel put out by the school systems!
None of the sports activities are revenue producing - fees are collected - but never enough to cover the expenses of the sport involved. In actuality, I believe, if one looked at all the numbers, the net cost of football, basketball, volleyball,etc would be much more than many of the smaller "non-revenue" producing sports or any of the academic activities (i.e.-STUCO, Debate, Academic team). All of the above have their place in school and do encourage involvement, however, how much more worthwhile would it be to have the reputation of providing students with academically challenging activities that help promote each students future success.
I have trouble with the fact the everyone has sports on the brain. We could have a 1 to 5 ratio of coach per student & it still would not spell success. Until we turn off the tv, computer & gameboy it will not matter if we have Dick Vermeil & play in Arrowhead. School is not entertainment. Entertainment is not school.
After they are out of school I will take a geek over a jock anyday. As far as Mr. Resas comments..... why don't we sart cleaning up the education mess then worry about sports?
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