Daniel Prince
May 11, 2023
Athletic trainer contract set to increase by 433%
At Monday’s school board workshop, several questions remained unanswered that the board will have to address in the next couple of months. On Tuesday’s news, we talked about the possibility of a tax increase and whether or not to pay people coming in from the workforce to teach courses at the Career and Technology Center according to their professional experience.
One of the other remaining questions dealt with the athletic trainers. Superintendent Joey Haney said the district contracts with Spartanburg Regional for athletic training services, and he said they informed the district that the contract price for that service will be increasing from $7500 to $40,000 for the coming year. Haney said that Spartanburg Regional has provided the service for the district since 2015, and they told the district that they needed to increase the price even before the pandemic. They said the price is in line with what other districts are paying, but they did offer to work with the district to only increase the price to $30,000 for this coming year before going up to $40,000 the following year. The board balked at the 433% increase. Board member Doc Lipsey asked Haney to look into a different training group out of Anderson that he said was named Play Safe, a nonprofit athletic service. Haney said Athletic Director Scott Sherbert had looked into it originally when Lipsey had sent information on it, but he said he would review it again and see if it would fit the district’s needs. Board member Mike Massey mentioned hiring a full-time athletic trainer to work for the district as has happened in the past prior to establishing the contract with Spartanburg Regional. No action was decided on, and the board will look to address the issue at a future meeting.
A lengthy discussion took place on how to fund the athletic department for the coming year. Superintendent Joey Haney said the department has gotten $60,000 to operate for a number of years, with gate receipts, corporate sponsors, and other sources of revenue supplementing that. Haney proposed separating the budgets for the schools, to give individual athletic directors a say in how to handle their budget and to help train them for possible future advancement. Haney proposed giving the high school $60,000 for its athletic budget, which would be an increase, since it currently splits the money with the two middle schools. He also proposed, based on the number of athletes this year at each school, giving Sims Middle School $12,000 for an athletic budget, and giving Jonesville Middle School $10,000. Gate receipts and other sources of revenue would continue to supplement each school’s athletic program. Haney said that Athletic Director Scott Sherbert is doing a good job of staying within the budget this year, where the department spent more than it took in the previous couple of years, largely due to gate receipts being down. Board member Mike Massey took issue with that way of funding, and said it would create more accountability and keep the athletic department from running a deficit if the district would give them the funds it takes to actually run the program—in other words, if the athletic department has budget needs of $200,000 to run the program, give them the $200,000 so they have the money they need, and then allow gate receipts, corporate sponsors, and other revenue streams to go back to the district to reimburse. That way, the athletic department would have predictable revenue, and the district would shoulder the gains or losses as gate receipts and other sources of revenue fluctuate. Board chair Manning Jeter closed the discussion by telling the board members that the board has to start getting some things settled at its next meeting, which will be on Monday, May 22.