School board agrees to include proposed coaching-supplement increases in budget draft

The Washington County School Board voted to include proposed adjustments to coaching supplements in the draft fiscal-year budget after staff presented an updated change worksheet that also flagged a roughly $54,000 janitorial cost and other possible additions.

Board members and staff discussed a proposal to index coaching stipends to the district’s 0-year teacher salary, adjust percentage rates across positions, and add a longevity component to avoid reducing any existing coach’s pay in a transition. "I'll make a motion that we approve line K of Jerry's Google spreadsheet right here and true up those negative numbers ... to at least 0," Board Member Flynn said when he moved to include the changes; the motion carried.

The new worksheet, prepared by district staff, shows several stipends the district’s athletic directors had identified as low compared with neighboring systems. Staff described the approach as using the starting teacher salary as a base index and then assigning a percentage to calculate each supplement. That method raised low stipends — for example, staff said a middle-school cross-country stipend moved closer into line with other activities — and would let the board apply the index each year rather than revisiting individual supplements one-by-one.

Staff flagged two separate cost impacts during the discussion: an estimated janitorial contract CPI increase of about $54,000 and the coaching-supplement changes, which staff said "will be in the neighborhood of 75 to 100 thousand dollars," plus another figure referenced in the worksheet as about $120,000 in potential additional costs. District staff told the board they had not yet totaled the full dollar impact of the proposed supplement changes. "We'll calculate the total amount that it'll add to the budget, and it'll be included in the final draft of the budget," a staff member said.

Board members pressed for protections so no employee would see a pay reduction during a transition to the new scale; staff proposed holding current employees flat where necessary and applying the new scale to new hires. Staff also added columns in the worksheet for longevity bands, which would further adjust supplements for long-serving employees.

Several board members asked whether athletic directors were satisfied with current offerings and about adding sports; staff said additions generally begin with Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA) eligibility and local interest surveys. The board discussed instances where student-driven ideas, such as a boys volleyball team, led to new programs without additional stipend complications.

Separately during the meeting, board members discussed other budget items that affect fund balance, including a line the staff said totaled $1,350,000 connected to food service and a $350,000 EESI loan component. Staff estimated that, depending on spending and reimbursements, fund-balance projections for the year could fall into an $18 million to $20 million range and warned that drawing down an additional $8 million next year could create cash-flow pressure in June.

The board voted to include the proposed supplement adjustments in the draft budget and directed staff to calculate and provide the total fiscal effect for incorporation into the final budget document. No formal dollar totals for the supplement package were recorded in the meeting transcript at the time of the vote.

The board and staff indicated the board may revisit supplement and longevity questions in midyear and discussed a formal request to allocate discretionary or outcome-based funds at a May meeting for items outside the main budget timeline.

Ending: The board approved adding the worksheet changes to the draft budget and asked staff to return with precise cost calculations before final adoption; staff said those totals will be reflected in the final budget document.