Webster Parish School Board member, John Madden brought forth concerns on Monday about the pay of coaches in the Parish.
A coaching supplements payment information sheet was provided to the board.
“I was looking back through what Caddo pays and Bossier pays their head coaches and assistant coaches. And I was just wanting to make sure that we thought we were somewhat in line. And I’m the last one on the board wanting to spend money but those guys get out there, they’re not making minimum wage doing what they’re doing, not to mention being gone a lot. I guess I just want to satisfy myself that we are somewhat in line with coaches pay,” Madden said.,“We might not be as wealthy as Bossier, but still those people are out there working long, hard hours, trying to put together programs that represent us.”
The superintendent Johnny Rowland and assistant superintendent Kevin Washington both agreed with Madden that coaching pay needed to be reconsidered.
“I tell you Mr. Madden, it speaks volumes to the character and integrity of the people that we have working for us now. That have been here with us and are loyal to us,I agree 100 percent with what you just said. We also recognize that when you begin a discussion like this, you’re going to have others ask questions, we recognize that as well.
You’re going to have maintenance workers and SFS workers, and school secretaries, and paras. We understand that conversation will spur other conversations. That doesn’t mean you don’t have it, though,” Rowland said.
The board decided at the suggestion of Mr. Washington to form a committee to consider the amount and the way coaches are paid in the parish.
“When I looked at that, Mr. Madden, we talked about it the other day, Mr. Rowland and I. What I’d like to see us do is to develop a committee because I think there may be a better way to do that. But I would like a committee and the board would suggest the person that they would like to be on the committee. I’d like a makeup of coaches, administrators to sit down and look at how we pay those coaches right now. There’s a block of money and those administrators are given the task to kind of divvy that out. The model we’re working on is a 2013 model and that model would not reflect some of the other districts that are surrounding us,” Washington said.
Washington said he wanted the committee to consider a different way of paying revenue creating sports while not encroaching upon the protections of Title IX. School board members, Frankie Mitchell and Ronnie Broughton volunteered to be part of the committee.
Board member Jerry Lott agreed that the schedule was outdated but he said that it needed to be considered that some coaches are coaching during school hours which meant they were already getting paid for some of their coaching with teacher pay.
“You’ve got to look at that if you’re going to be equitable,” Lott said.
Business Director, Crevonne Odom also expressed concerns about the way sponsor pay is set- up. The model has not been changed since 1998. There are sponsor allocations of $4000 that are divvied between any activity sponsor at a high school. The same amount of money allocated for each high school.
“The Louisi-Annes and Minden High Cheerleaders, their sponsor might make $300. That’s for the year, this is not a month, this is a year. They might get $300 because they are on the top level of the number of hours they’re actually putting in for their sponsorship. But then at Doyline, they have cheerleading and pep squad, they might have six on their squad while Minden High has almost 20 on their squad. They only do basketball at Doyline, while Minden high does basketball, football, and they have to go to the baseball games. I remember because I had to go to the baseball games. The sponsor down at Doyline might make $1200 a year because they have less people so they can divide it out more. So we know there are some discrepancies and they need to be addressed,” Odom said.