Evaluation process snags coach, sponsor contracts

The Fairfield school board surprised some administrators Monday by not approving a list of individual coach and sponsor contracts for 2012-13.

Presented for approval by activities director Jeff Courtright, the list has 73 names, 109 positions and 109 salary amounts. The list includes sports coaches, some who are district teachers and some who are not, department chairs, drama and speech coaches, yearbook and cheerleading sponsors as well as art, music and band teachers.

Board member Rich Metcalf asked Courtright if the contracts were for next school year, which they are.

?Why should we approve non-teaching coaches who haven?t played through this season yet?? asked Metcalf. ?I have a problem with approving contracts before there has been an evaluation.?

Courtright acknowledged that he was finishing up winter sports coaching evaluations and spring and summer sports coaches would not have had an evaluation yet. He said his usual procedure is to evaluate the head coach of a program and let the head coach tell him about assistant coaches.

?The non-teaching coaches are issued contracts on a year-to-year basis as at-will employees?? asked Metcalf.

Courtright said yes.

?Do we want to issue non-teaching and teaching coach contracts separately?? asked superintendent Art Sathoff.

Board members didn?t think that was needed.

?I have a problem with retired personnel getting retirement pay from the district and get paid for coaching, too,? said board member Bob Waugh.

Courtright said he?s always hired the best applicant from the pool of candidates applying.

That brought up a tangent issue; some coaches may have been the best candidate at the time and now, some years later, perhaps a better coaching candidate was available but the position wasn?t open, said board member Amy Miller.

?Maybe we should have all non-teaching coaches have to re-apply for the position every three years and open it to everyone,? she said.

Coaches don?t make everyone happy and when there are issues, Courtright said he listens. runs down rumors and hears the coach?s side, also.

?If a coach does something off-the wall, yeah, we terminate,? he said. ?If there is abuse or misconduct, we terminate. If a coach is not putting the time into the program that?s necessary, I can counsel them and give them a chance to improve. It?s not if a coach has a losing season, they?re fired.?

Amy Miller also expressed concern about approving contracts without an evaluation.

?Teachers are evaluated every three years,? said Courtright. ?Are you going to make them get evaluated annually, too?? (New teachers are evaluated each year or more often the first two years).

Sathoff suggested evaluating non-teaching coaches each year would be consistent with how all non-certified staff is evaluated.

?That?s how we treat all other year-to-year district employees,? he said. ?They are evaluated annually.?

Board members drafted and defeated a number of motions, including the original idea to approve the coaching/sponsor list.

?The board needs to think about its role in this,? said Sathoff. ?This is the administrator?s job.?

Board member Jeri Kunkle said she didn?t want to give the impression that Courtright wasn?t doing a good job.

After more than an hour?s discussion, Sathoff proposed the board table the issue and bring it back at the June board meeting.

?What will be different then?? asked Amy Miller.

Sathoff said the board needed a subcommittee formed to study it and bring a proposal to the June meeting.

?I?d like a list of the coaches who have been evaluated,? said Amy Miller.

Board members volunteering to serve on the subcommittee (limited to three so as not to create a quorum) are Metcalf, Waugh and Jeremy Miller. They will meet with Sathoff and Courtright.

The board tabled approval of the list until June.

When it came to approving the support staff salaries and contract, board member Jerry Nelson said he didn?t like the wage scale. Waugh said he objects to applying a percentage increase to salaries because people at the lower end get much less money than those at the top of the scale.

?The amount of nitpicking going on tonight tells me there needs to be more committee work before these come to the whole board,? said Sathoff, at about 10:30 p.m. and yet another hour before adjournment.

?I am feeling very discouraged.?

Amy Miller said it wasn?t nitpicking.

?You have a new board,? she said. ?This is not distrust about anyone. It?s just some of us don?t know how things work. I don?t want you to be discouraged. Don?t think we don?t support the support staff. I need to ask questions because as board members we get questions from the community. I need to be able to answer with correct information.?