Partial stipends for spring coaches at NRHS approved 4-1

Staff salary payments extended through June

Published May 14, 2020

By JILLIAN STRING

NORTH READING — After roughly 40 minutes of discussion at its May 4 meeting, the School Committee voted 4-1 to approve the partial payment of athletic stipends to coaches for the spring 2020 season.

School Committee Chairman Scott Buckley, who represented the “nay” vote, expressed concerns with the approximately $20,000 requested to cover athletic stipends.

“I appreciate that there’s work that goes into (spring sports)…I just feel like at some point in time something has to be cut, and there has to be money that is saved,” Buckley said.

Buckley added that though he appreciates all of the planning that occurred, the amount requested seemed excessive given that there isn’t an accounting of specific preseason activities, and that tryouts, practices, and games never took place.

“If we wanted to talk about doing $500 stipends to head coaches to show our appreciation, that’s one thing,” Buckley said. “I sit in Finance Planning Team meetings. I see how tough revenue projections are going to be. I see where we need to get to. We’re trying to prioritize keeping as many positions as we can, and I think it’s hard to vote for paying stipends for athletics that didn’t occur this year.”

The matter was brought to the attention of the committee by Athletic Director Dave Johnson, who sent a memo on behalf of the NRHS spring coaching staff.

“On paper, the spring season always starts the third Monday in March, but in reality it begins several months earlier for all of our head coaches in North Reading and many of their assistants. My staff is very involved in the equipment inventory, ordering and preseason distribution of practice gear for the over 300 spring athletes. They are also committed to MIAA, Cape Ann League, State Coaches Associations, individual team staff and North Reading parent meetings that sometimes are multiple meetings and do take place before the start of the regular season,” Johnson wrote.

The AD’s letter continued: “Many hours are spent with their prospective student-athletes preparing them for the season ahead. As we all know, many of the North Reading athletes go on to play at the collegiate level and promoting their athletes in the off-season helps these students gain scholarships to the D1 and D2 levels. Head coaches hold many staff meetings regularly to prepare for preseason tryouts and strategize for the upcoming season. Having said that I would like to advocate for the spring coaches to receive some compensation for time served before the cancellation of the spring season occurred.”

Superintendent of Finance and Operations Michael Connelly stated that the administration supported Johnson’s request.

“I think what Mr. Johnson is alluding to, and I think the administration certainly agrees with many of the contents of the letter, that there is quite a bit of work that the coaching staff does put in before the start of the season,” Connelly said. “What we want to do here is recognize and appreciate Dave Johnson’s advocacy for the work of his coaching staff.”

Connelly stated that head coaches will receive 25 percent of their total stipend and assistant coaches will receive 15 percent.

“Many districts in the Cape Ann League are certainly moving forward with some type of a partial payment,” Connelly added. “We feel it’s the right thing to do.”

Superintendent Dr. Patrick Daly added that many of the coaches have served in North Reading for a number of years, and they are continuing to engage with student-athletes even though the season has been canceled.

“There’s been a lot of support given to our students who are really disappointed that they’re not playing, especially our seniors, who were looking forward to a senior spring season that didn’t happen,” Daly said.

School Committee member Chris Pappavaselio asked where the $20,000 would come from, since user fees would not be collected for the spring season.

Connelly clarified that the user fees support the cost of equipment, payment of game officials, and other aspects of the program. They are no longer used to cover stipends, so the $20,000 will come out of the general fund operating budget as per usual.

School employee payments extended

With the extension of school closures to the end of the current academic year due to COVID-19, the School Committee unanimously approved the extension of salary payments for employees through the end of the school year.

The committee updated the original motion granted at its March 18 meeting, extending the payment of salaries each time the return to school date changed.

“We’re asking for base payment of wages and salaries for school-year staff to occur through June 19, 2020 and full-year staff to occur through the end of the fiscal year, so that would be June 30, 2020,” Connelly said.