Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Athletics Funding topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Board reallocates $5,500 CSBA ELA fee to high-school athletics; parents press for stunt coaching stipends
Summary
Trustees voted to forgo a $5,500 Education Legal Alliance membership and redirect those funds to high-school athletics. Public speakers asked the board to add stipends and equipment funding for JV and varsity stunt teams after the district approved stipends for new girls' flag football.
The Temecula Valley Unified School District Board on June 10 approved removing a $5,500 Education Legal Alliance membership fee from its consent package and reallocating that amount to high-school athletics, a move proponents said would provide immediate material support to school teams.
Trustee Joseph Barham proposed reallocating the roughly $5,500 toward the district's high schools rather than renewing the ELA membership, and the board approved that substitution unanimously. The motion followed public testimony from parents and community members asking the district to fund coaching stipends and equipment for "stunt," a competitive all-girls sport that district families say has grown quickly over the past seven years but lacks stable district-funded coaching support.
Parent Christine Massa told the board that stunt, now offered as junior varsity and varsity at several district high schools, received no district stipends for JV coaches and relied on thousands of dollars of fundraising to pay for assistant coaches and safety equipment. "We raised more than $5,000 to pay a JV coach and an assistant varsity coach," she said. Supporters noted neighboring districts had funded multiple stunt stipends and cautioned that without district-funded coaches, teams cannot safely develop skill progressions.
Separately, the board had approved two new stipend positions for girls' flag football earlier in the meeting; stunt advocates argued that stunt had been present and expanding longer and deserved comparable funding. Trustees agreed to direct negotiators at the districtteacher association bargaining table to explore stipend changes during upcoming contract discussions.
The board also approved an athletics stipend update with the teachersassociation that added several line items; costs were described during the meeting as approximately $8,835 plus related labor costs for the specific stipend package approved later in the agenda. Trustees and staff said they would continue conversations with coaches and the teachers' union to address stipend inequities and safety equipment needs.
