This article appeared in the 23 April 2008 edition of The Piedmont Post.
Increase in coaches’ pay could be funded by parents
Piedmont Boosters Club recommends $325 participation fee
By Benjamin Bombard
A proposal to significantly increase the salaries of Piedmont’s athletic coaches would do so by instituting participation fees similar to those charged by club sports, potentially reforming the financial landscape of Piedmont High Athletics.
Authored by a subcommittee of the Piedmont High School Athletic Boosters Club and presented at a public meeting held on Tuesday, April 22, the proposal would reform the financial landscape of Piedmont High athletics.
If approved by the school board in May, the proposal would pay all coaches the same weekly salary, create an athletic trainer position, provide compensation to a limited number of assistant coaches, and allow head coaches to enroll their children in Piedmont schools.
The stipend level would balloon the current district stipend spending budget from $63,339 to $313,517. In order to fund the estimated $250,000 gap, the School District has agreed to increase their contribution by $50,000, and the Boosters Club is recommending the school require a $325 participation fee per athlete per sport. According to the Boosters Club, team fundraising through car washes, raffles and other special events accounts for 55-percent of athletic funding, and that number will remain unchanged.
Free ride
Piedmont currently uses a five-tiered pay schedule to determine coaching salaries. That plan values some coaches and sports more highly than others. As of 2007, the pay received by varsity head coaches ranged from $1,139 for the cheerleading coach to $2,103 for the varsity basketball and baseball coaches. The school district has not given coaches a raise since a 3-percent stipend increase in 1995.
“We’ve essentially gotten a free ride on the backs of our coaches,” says Mark Menke, the president of the Booster’s Club.
The proposed changes would bring coaching stipends up to a highly competitive level with comparable public, parochial and private schools.
The new stipends would range from $1,869 for a first year girls’ golf coach to $5,885 for a fifth year varsity football coach. Compensation would be tied to the length, in weeks, of the sport’s schedule, not including North Coast Section Playoffs, as well as to a coach’s years of experience at Piedmont. To avoid a similar situation in the future, the new pay scale would be reviewed annually to insure it is consistent with district-wide increases.
The new proposal was drafted in response to the findings of the coaching stipend review committee, formed in February 2007 to address Piedmont High’s difficulty recruiting and retaining coaches.
In 2006-2007, 75-percent of students participated in at least one high school sport, not including multi-sport athletes. Yet since the 1999-2000 school year, 135 coaches have coached 46 different sports. The problem is most apparent in junior varsity softball, which has had a different coach every year for the last decade.
According to a report authored by the coaching stipend review committee, the hope is that by raising coaching salaries, Piedmont will be more competitive when recruiting and retaining quality coaches. They say that would create a better experience for athletes, who can spend less time adjusting to new coaches, and more time developing their skills and having fun.
More consistent coaching also means fewer administrative headaches.
“Almost every single year I lost a new coach,” said Karyn Shipp, Piedmont’s assistant vice principal and a former girls’ varsity soccer coach and women’s athletic director. “If [coaches] were selected by Piedmont and another school, we lost them, always because of stipends.”
To Menke and his wife Anne-Marie Lamarche – both of whom served on the review committee – providing coaches with better compensation is an issue of “basic fairness,” and they believe there is competitive precedent for participation fees in club sports and other levels of competition. Their presentation last Tuesday showed that competitive club sports typically charge participation fees in excess of $300. Bay Area schools Monte Vista High and San Ramon Valley High charge participation fees as well.
Menke and Lamarche also provided accounts of what they call a “weird side-effect” of paltry coaching salaries that could potentially cost Piedmont its standing in the Bay Shore Athletic League.
“Many teams collect money at the end of the year to pay coaches under the table. That’s not equitable, and the school has no real knowledge or oversight of those practices,” said Lamarche.
“Anecdotally, we know this goes on. We’d like to pay the stipend upfront,” added Menke.
It is a violation of California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) rules for a coach to be reimbursed from any source other than school finds without the approval of the school’s governing board, and gifts to coaches in excess of $500 must be reported to the CIF.
Other provisions
In addition to providing increased salaries for head coaches, the committee also recommends that assistant coaches be salaried at the rate of one assistant coach per 10 athletes on a given roster. They will receive a pay increase similar to that of head coaches. Menke and Lamarche say it’s not uncommon for a head coach to distribute his salary amongst his assistant coaches to help retain their services and acknowledge their contribution to a team.
The proposal would create a year-round, part-time position for an athletic trainer and strength and conditioning coach to help athletes avoid injury, improve athletic performance and reduce the school district’s liability.
Another incentive for recruiting and retaining coaches is a proposal to allow the children of head coaches to enroll in Piedmont schools, an opportunity already extended to other Piedmont School District employees.
“On paper, that’s a huge incentive,” said PHS Principal Randy Booker. “It’s probably a bigger benefit than the stipend alone. People work hard to send their children to Piedmont schools.”
Community input
As one might expect, Piedmont coaches are enthusiastic about the possibility of receiving a larger stipend.
“Teachers and coaches make a great impression on young people's lives,” said varsity girl’s lacrosse coach LaNon Gillins. “Coaching and teaching build the future of these kids, and the pay does not reflect the effect coaches or teachers have on a young person's life.”
The Post recently conducted an informal poll of Piedmont coaches, and six of the nine polled said that they would be more likely to continue coaching at PHS if they were offered a larger stipend. Eight stated that Piedmont coaches are not adequately or fairly compensated.
“Obviously, though, we don’t do it for the money,” said varsity tennis coach Neil Rothenberg, echoing the sentiments of many coaches. “It isn’t even the sport, necessarily. It's about the kids.”
All of the coaches polled said they had received coaching offers from other schools offering higher stipends, and all but one agreed that they would be more likely to coach at Piedmont if their children were allowed to attend the town’s schools.
One coach said he was troubled by the fact that the participation fee would allow the state to further place the onus of public education on parents.
Ulla Smit, a parent of four children currently attending Piedmont schools, said she approves of the participation fee proposal. She said that her son Christian, who plays varsity soccer at Piedmont, has benefited immensely from the tutelage of Peter Hayton, who has guided the soccer team to two straight NCS finals appearances.
“Our kids are getting fantastic coaching and great life experience. That’s well worth $325, and even that’s a bargain,” Smit said.
The Post contacted three other parents. All said they would support instituting a participation fee. One parent said that public schools don’t typically require students to pay to participate in sports. Another said that a $350 participation fee is “right on the edge of what seems reasonable.”
Board approval
Principal Booker fully supports the coaching stipend proposal and says he has submitted it for approval by Constance Hubbard, the Piedmont School District Superintendent. According to Lamarche and Menke, the proposal will be presented to the school board on either May 14 or May 28, with hopes that it will be instituted this coming fall.
