Is Coaching Turnover Linked To Low Stipend Pay In District?

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/983473-469/coaching-pay-turnover-may-be-linked.html

NASHUA – The girls field hockey team at Nashua High School South has gone through three coaches in three years.

The girls soccer and boys ice hockey teams at the city’s high schools also have seen several coaches come and go. The amount of turnover among coaches in the school district has school officials concerned enough to start talking about ways to reverse the trend.

Coaching turnover is an issue that has no single cause, said Nashua Athletic Director Tom Arria. But he and other school officials think that low stipends might be one of the factors.

“I think it’s several reasons, but I do think that our stipends being what they are does have an effect on this,” Arria said.

The Board of Education’s Human Resources Committee discussed boosting coaches’ pay at its meeting Thursday night.

The committee was presented with information on coaching stipends in 40 school districts around the state, including Nashua – the results of a survey conducted by Souhegan High School’s athletic director this summer.

There are 70 varsity coaching positions included in the survey, shown as first-year, fifth-year, and 10th-year head coaching jobs, as well as assistant varsity coaches.

In 48 of those positions, Gate City coaches are paid less than at least half of the other schools participating in the survey.

Not all coaches are at the bottom of the pack, however. For some of the more popular sports, like football and basketball, the district pays their coaches an average amount.

For example, a first-year varsity basketball coach would receive a stipend between $3,500 and $4,000 in the Gate City. That puts Nashua in the middle of the pack: 14 school districts pay their coaches more, up to $6,000, and 16 pay their coaches less, according to data provided Thursday.

A Nashua first-year head varsity football coach on the other hand, would be paid between $4,500 and $5,000. Only six districts that participated in the survey pay their football coaches more.

But not all coaches are paid equally.

A first-year varsity field hockey coach in the city, for example, would be paid between $1,500 and $2,000 — among the lowest stipends in the state. In fact, only two other districts paid their field hockey coaches the same amount, with 22 paying more.

Cheerleading coaches face a similar situation. A first-year varsity cheerleading coach in the Gate City is paid between $1,000 and $1,500. Like field hockey, no other district pays lower, and 20 pay more, up to $4,000 in two cases.

Superintendent Mark Conrad said that the lower-paid positions tend to be the same ones that experience the most turnover. Like Arria, he said there are other factors, and suggested that paying coaches more money may not be so easy.

The discussion is not new to the district.

Conrad said that school officials have noted over a number of years that some of the coaching stipends were low relative to other districts in the state and were concerned that might have played into turnover in some sports.

“This is an area that has been broached. People have discussed it. Now, the data actually proves what we were speaking about,” Arria said.

To actually change the coaching stipends, however, would not be simple, since they are covered under teacher contracts and can only be changed during negotiations, Conrad said.

Arria said that many of the district’s longtime coaches are teachers in the city, or alumni and parents, who have a vested interest in Gate City sports. Those who are less invested, however, may be turned off by the relative low pay of some coaching positions, he said.

Much of the district’s turnover, regardless of the sport, is seen at the middle school and sub-varsity levels, Arria said, where younger people with less experience are more likely to be hired.

Committee members wondered whether higher stipends for coaches would improve the district’s ability to attract better candidates for these positions.

“I think that you’re seeing turnover in places that are not the ‘big’ sports, but you don’t want that constant turnover,” said School Board President Robert Hallowell. “These are the ones who’s pay is really low down also. It’s hard to get good coaches and we’re probably not giving enough that it attracts those good people.”

While the survey did a lot to show the district just how its pay for coaches compares to other schools in the region, it is important to remember the numbers are not that simple, Conrad said.

They are not broken down by the size of the district, for example.

Hallowell said a smaller district, or a district in a more affluent region, might be able to pay their coaches more than the Gate City will be able to.

“There’s a lot of things that we aren’t on the high end of when it comes to pay, because we’re Nashua, we’re a big district, and we have to spend a lot of money,” he said.

Hallowell requested that school officials provide the committee with further information on coaching turnover in recent years, questioning how many coaches left because they wanted to and how many left because the district wanted them to.

This information will be presented at a future meeting, and the discussion on coaching stipends and turnover is expected to continue.

“We won’t have anything concrete for a while,” Arria said.

You Might Also Like

Study: How sideline sports behavior affects young athletes

Nantucket hockey player suspended 1 year for ‘violent assault of an official’

Former Nebraska women’s basketball player sues coaches, A.D.