JCPS also pays their teachers one of the highest salaries in the state. Have to look at both sides of the coin.

 

While this is objectively true, to say that as a justification for low coaching (head and assistant) stipends, to me doesn't make sense.

 

I said to someone at the Board level when first taking the job at Ballard that our coaching pay was extremely low compared to other places I'd been. The comment back was, "well, you get paid more to teach here, so it makes up for it."

 

The person teaching down the hall from a coach gets paid the same as the coach for their teaching. As Coach Scroggins (and several others now publicly) have pointed out, the teaching load is not lessened much (if at all) for you just because you spend an inordinate amount of time coaching (for me, usually 30-35 more hours a week outside of school hours in-season and 10-15 hours outside school hours in off-season).

 

So then, to use a higher teaching salary as a reason it's okay to pay you less as a coach doesn't make much sense me. If you are expected to teach with just as much effort as a teacher with zero extra-curricular responsibilities (and believe me, you are), you EARN every penny of that "higher teaching salary." So why should that legitimize paying you less for all the hours you spend outside of school compared to your peers at pretty much any other public system in the state?

JCPS also pays their teachers one of the highest salaries in the state. Have to look at both sides of the coin.

That has zero to do with coaching pay. Two separate jobs, one does not justify the pay of the other. As you said, 2 sides of the coin...independent of each other. On top of that you don't get credit for your years of experience in JCPS. Up to 10 years from outside the district...in some cases a seasoned coach/teacher will make less than surrounding counties or even Fayette who honors up to 20 outside the district. Just saying.

Teachers in JCPS make as much as most head coaches make with their coaching stipends and teaching salary. For instance look at Oldham County Rank I at 12 years and JCPS. As a teacher and head football coach in oldham you can't even equal just a teacher salary in JCPS

 

This is pretty much correct. For 12 years experience in Oldham with a Rank 1 you make $70,090 as Head Football Coach (teaching pay: $57,926, head coaching can earn you 21% of your teaching salary on top of that: $12,164). In JCPS you make $69,514 for teaching with a Rank 1.

 

Again though, I can tell you from experience, I spent just as much time and tried just as hard to educate ALL my students as a teacher in Oldham schools for what they felt inclined to pay me for teaching as I did in JCPS.

 

Similarly, as a JCPS head coach I worked just as hard in time and effort (maybe more considering all the times I drove kids home somewhere in the west end after 11pm following a Friday night game) for the $7,444 in head coaching pay as I did in OCHS schools for what they felt was fair to pay me for coaching.

 

By the way, don't lose sight that I only earned the $7,444 head coaching stipend the year I reached my 4th year as a head coach in JCPS. My 5th year, it remained $7,444 as it did in the 6th, 7th, and so on (Bob Redman of all people got no bump in his head coaching pay following his 4th season as head coach despite all the success he had). Somehow you are rewarded/compensated for your loyalty/experience in the classroom with a progressive pay scale, but that doesn't hold true for you as a coach.

 

Oh, and don't forget, part of what you are paid in Oldham Schools as a coach is for your OFF-season time (you get 15% of your teaching salary for "coaching" and 6% more for what you do specifically in the off-season). As I said in a previous post, I spent 10-15 hours per week, after school, on top of lesson planning/paper grading running a fully comprehensive off-season strength, speed, and agility program (not to mention extra hours during spring practice weeks) both at OCHS and at Ballard.

 

Oh, and consider the time you spend in playoffs working for free, because I made $7,444 total in 2014 when we played 4 weeks beyond the regular season and went to the state semifinals -- that's the same exact coaching salary head coaches made at JCPS schools who didn't make the playoffs. (Obvioiusly, none of us complain about that because we all want to work for free as long as possible because our teams are still playing.)

 

I greatly appreciate what JCPS pays us to teach. I feel it's very much earned. I have also never complained -- and am not really complaining in this thread -- about being paid poorly for our efforts as coaches. I am just wanting to point out that just because your pay as a teacher is good, that should not be used as a justification to make your pay as a coach any less than any other coach in the state (unless a coach is compensated more than others on the basis of MERIT -- something I'm all for).

We definitely don't do it for the money! I am sitting on a principal certification with the possibility to be making close to 95-100k. However, after taking a year away as a head coach to be an assistant at Manual, all I want to do is be a head coach again! I am probably crazy for this considering all I had to do at Iroquois and Valley to put a product on the field I was proud of, much less win games. Drive the activity bus daily to pick up and drop off kids for a whopping $10 an hour, pay insurance money out of my pocket, take kids to get physicals and pay for them, take time away from my family to pick them up and bring them away from domestic violence, feed them, be their mom and dad at times, let them be a part of our true house hold family , and countless other things that have nothing to do with coaching. All I can say is with all the pros and cons is I love it. It gives me purpose, with that being said I wish we were compensated for it more, but the pay will not stop me and that is probably 99% of the problem!

You guys have the strongest teachers union in the state. Take it to them to bring it up at contract negotiations.

I think you have coaches who are just tired of working extremely hard and not really getting anywhere. Facilities are 2nd rate at best, pay is terrible, and they get no relief in teaching load. I think it's just becoming obvious that JCPS has to do more IF they want quality football. Im just not sure they care. But I'm on the outside looking in.

 

Isn't this true for the rest of the state also?

You guys have the strongest teachers union in the state. Take it to them to bring it up at contract negotiations.

 

You are right about this. And their work, along with the Board's acknowledgement there are unique stressors working in JCPS, gives us good compensation teaching-wise.

 

Again, I didn't want to come off as 'complaining' about the work they've done on our behalf as teachers. Just wanted to address those who think b/c our teaching pay is higher it somehow justifies low coaching pay.

 

To your point, I think if they wanted to take this up as an issue, they would do a good job on our behalf. I'm sure they want to spend most of their time and effort getting the teaching pay as high as possible. (There was a slight bump in coaches' stipends after the last CBA due to their work, but with the highest head coach pay topping out at $7,444 you can see it still lags quite a bit behind our out-in-the-state bretheren.)

Isn't this true for the rest of the state also?

Not necessarily, but certainly some places (we see those jobs come open frequently). However, in MANY places in this state you get a 10k plus stipend or extended days, or some financial incentive, or teaching loads are less or even nonexistent, or facilities are fantastic. There are many good jobs in this state that guys don't leave. Why? Because it's a good gig (may not compete for a title but folks aren't working hard to undo your hard work...or at the very least not holding your program back) . Not many JCPS jobs are "good gigs" with so much working against you. You don't have to have a ton of positives as a coach, but you just can't have so much working against you in so many ways. At some point you just get tired of pounding your head against a wall, or even being held back in some cases from an opportunity to have success.

It's going to get worse before it gets better. Some the the football facilities in JCPS look like 3rd world countries. Jefferson County Traditional Middle School has the best middle school program in the area and they feed directly to Male. There a reason why CAL and DeSales have risen the way that they have. They are good schools and less expensive then Trinity or X. Until JCPS addresses ALL of their issues it won't get better.

 

Wrong....The tuition for DeSales is the same as St X, and Holy Cross. The Archdioceses sets the tuition rate not the school. Trinity is a few hundred more, as it is not a Archdioceses school. The reason for the rise at DeSales is easy. For years they played 4A football with 300 kids. When they got reclassified to 2A it has allowed them to compete at a more fair level.

Wrong....The tuition for DeSales is the same as St X, and Holy Cross. The Archdioceses sets the tuition rate not the school. Trinity is a few hundred more, as it is not a Archdioceses school. The reason for the rise at DeSales is easy. For years they played 4A football with 300 kids. When they got reclassified to 2A it has allowed them to compete at a more fair level.

 

I have no desire to get into an argument regarding DeSales as I have a huge amount of respect for the school and what they have accomplished, I did not mean to imply that DeSales was in any way inferior to Trinity or X, nor do I have no desire to take this thread off on a tangent but your statement is incorrect. According to schools websites tuition at DeSales is $11,345 (LINK), Holy Cross is $9,350 (LINK), Trinity is $13,200 (LINK) and St. X is $13,175(LINK). I also stand by my statement that one of the reasons that private schools in Louisville, including DeSales, are currently seeing an upswing in enrollment is due to the condition of the Jefferson County Public School system.

Two more open....

 

Western and Seneca came open this morning.

 

And Seneca might have some of the worst facilities of any of the JCPS schools.

Edited January 9, 20179 yr by EastSideJunkie

I work for a school in Hillsborough County (Tampa) as a teacher and coach and a lot of the views stated by many on this thread sound just like the views we talk about down here. Our school district has been dealing with budget issues and a number of cuts have taken place across the district and will probably be another couple of years before things start to level out.

 

From a coaching standpoint last season (2016), we had a total of 14 coaches on staff with a total of 6 paid assistants. I just completed my 5th season and my stipend was roughly $1300 before taxes. We get a playoff bonus of $100 every round and roughly $350 for spring practice. Our district is getting a steal in terms of what they're playing coaches and the product that some of the teams produce. There are 27 public high schools in our district and we're a centrally funded district.

 

In my opinion the biggest thing holding high school coaches back in most areas is the fact that we're not doing it for the money. Most high school coaches who also teach are paying the bills from teaching not, coaching; we coach be we love the sport and enjoy teaching young people. Since we're not doing it for the money, districts can take advantage of that and use the extra money they do have on other situations, opposed to athletics.

Coaches do coach to help young players develop their skills and mode young males. However, in JCPS case they are not being paid fairly. Coach J has spoke the truth, every post he has posted is 100% correct. $7400 before taxes for entire season (including playoffs) is a disgrace to all coaches. Besides JCPS coaches, who would work over-time for free? Coach Scroggins said in the paper he has worked 40 plus games (45, I looked it up) for free. That would be 4.5 years which is a grand total of $33,480. :no: Why not pay them a percentage of their salary for every round in the playoffs? Or better yet, like one post mentioned $100 per round.

Edited January 9, 20179 yr by ftbll4life
wrong reply

No offense, but plenty of teachers volunteer and put in extra time for free. Not as much as football coaches, but you know what you signed up for. Is $3000-$4000 really going to make it that much better? And there are plenty of head coaches across the state that would love a $7,400 stipend. They also teach full loads for $10,000-$15,000 less. I just don't buy the argument that money is the issue. If so, people should look to go into administration.

And there are plenty of head coaches across the state that would love a $7,400 stipend. They also teach full loads for $10,000-$15,000 less.

 

No offense taken.

 

But I am curious how many programs in Ky. have head coaches who make under $7500 (remember, that includes off-season training, weightlifting, etc.). Also would be very interested to know how many programs with more than 100 kids freshman to senior yearly make that little.