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Board approves restructuring of athletics and activities department, creating assistant-director level role
Summary
The board approved converting a vacant coordinator role to an assistant-director position to strengthen program evaluation and coaching support; administrators said the change will reduce workload and support long-term planning.
The Urbandale Comm School District board approved restructuring a vacant athletics and activities coordinator position into an assistant-director role aimed at improving program evaluation and coach supervision.
Jared Power from Athletics and Activities described the change as part of a broader effort to distribute work, reduce extreme workloads and provide more consistent evaluation and feedback to coaches. Power said the department previously had coordinators responsible for many evaluations and event management; converting the vacant position to an assistant director with administrative authorization will allow the district to ensure evaluative continuity and a systems view of programs.
Power and other administrators said the change will help with the evaluation load — the winter season alone generated dozens of coach evaluations — and allow for longer-term program planning, more time in buildings to build relationships, and more deliberate recruitment and retention efforts for coaches. They also discussed the idea of placing programs on multi-year evaluation cycles to allow for targeted improvement over time rather than annual full evaluations of every program.
Board member Mankie moved to approve the change; the motion was seconded and approved on a roll-call vote. The board recorded the motion as passing 7–0.
Board members asked about candidate qualifications and certification pathways; administrators said the posting can indicate preferred administrative certification while the district can adjust requirements depending on the candidate pool and whether a candidate can obtain necessary authorization in a defined timeframe. Administrators also said the district expects to recruit candidates with middle-school or small-school AD experience and that an administrative assistant previously approved for the department will handle much of the clerical load.
Administrators said the restructured role will allow staff to spend time in middle schools and build feeder relationships, strengthen community programming and reduce single-person workload that previously drove turnover.
