The Columbus Municipal School District board of trustees Monday approved a new salary scale for athletics-related supplements.
The changes were made due to mandates which ensure coaches for girls and boys sports are paid the same in accordance with Title IX, a law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in schools receiving federal funding.
Now, the head boys basketball coach and the head girls basketball coach will each earn a $9,400 supplement.
Superintendent Dr. Philip Hickman said the money being used to adjust supplements is coming from the technology budget.
Personnel changes are also coming to CMSD’s athletic department.
Former boys basketball coach Sammy Smith, who was named interim athletic director last spring, has had the interim dropped from his title. He will earn $72,420 a year.
Two new head coaches were also approved Monday.
Dolly Blakeney has been approved as the head fast-pitch softball coach. She will earn a $9,000 supplement, bringing her total salary to $50,580.
Lee Davis has been named the new CHS baseball coach. He will also earn a $9,000 supplement. Davis also teaches and coaches football at Columbus Middle School. He will now earn $57,485.
School board member Jason Spears asked the superintendent to explain why the athletic supervisor position — a secondary athletic administration post with a $9,400 supplement — had been divided into four positions.
“Unless I’m looking at this incorrectly, we have four people getting a bump in pay instead of one athletic supervisor,” Spears said.
Hickman said the district is required to have an administrator at every sanctioned athletic event. In order to ensure someone can always attend events, they divided the athletic supervisor position into four posts to make it easier for someone to be at each game.
The supplement value remains at $9,400 it has just been split four ways, Hickman said.
School safety, WorkKeys report
Assistant superintendent Dr. Craig Shannon told the board there were 302 student behavior incidents reported in August district-wide. Of those, 276 were at the middle or high school. Shannon said while that number is up from 242 incidents reported last August, the administration believes this is because they have been documenting all incidents.
“We have talked with our administrators to ensure they accurately report everything that happens so we can really concentrate on what needs to be addressed,” Shannon said. “Instead of having things happen that might not go into a computer, our staff has done a great job of reporting all incidents to make sure we can make strategies to correct our behavior.”
Shannon said there have been eight staff accidents so far this year. Last school year, he said there were 53 staff accidents and that the district has increased training in an effort to bring that number down to 42 this school year.
Hickman also updated the board on the district’s WorkKeys program. The district has 49 students enrolled in a WorkKeys preparation course. CMSD pays for students to take the prep course, and will cover the $20 cost to pay for all juniors and seniors to take the WorkKeys test for all students interested in taking the exam.
WorkKeys was created by the same company that makes the ACT. It measures a student’s ability to function in the manufacturing world. Several area companies, including Yokohama Tire Manufacturing Mississippi require employees score a “Silver” or above on the test. The Golden Triangle Development LINK has agreed to cover half the cost of the exam for all area students.
In other news
The board also took time Monday to acknowledge the departure of Jannette Adams, who has served as the district’s grants and special services coordinator.
Adams leaves the district Sept. 24 when she will return to work for Mississippi Valley State University, her former employer. Adams was a CMSD board member in the late 1990s and has served as the grants coordinator for the past three years. In that time, trustee Currie Fisher said she has brought in $2.6 million in grants for the district.
“She has successfully served in her position,” Fisher said. “She has been a critical team leader, critical in rebuilding bridges, making connections and establishing successful working relationships with our Golden Triangle business partners as well as parents and private stakeholders. That’s not easy. She has gotten people to give to our district, so we can have programs, so we can have things for our district.”
Adams’ replacement has yet to be determined.
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