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South Range "restructures" athletic director position
By ROBERT CONNELLY
NORTH LIMA
The South Range school board has approved a restructuring of its athletic-director position.
The district has previously had a middle-school AD and a high-school AD. The new AD will oversee sports for grades seven through 12.
In the new roles, the new AD and assistant AD can have only one supplemental contract from the district. Instead of having a ticket manager for the middle school and high school there will be just one position.
“In years past, our ADs, middle school and high school, were able to coach as well as be an AD. The time and attention needed for that position — it’s difficult to hold more than one position,” said South Range schools superintendent Dennis Dunham.
The moves were approved in a memorandum of understanding between the South Range Board of Education and South Range Education Association, the teachers union.
The approved new AD “will be responsible for directing and coordinating all athletic events associated with the [Ohio High School Athletic Association] interscholastic competition in grades seven through 12,” according to the memorandum of understanding on the new role.
Wayne Allegretto, the current high-school athletic director, is stepping down as AD and will not pursue the new AD role. “That was my own choice,” he said Tuesday.
The board approved Allegretto to continue as offensive coordinator for the Raider football team Monday night.
Dunham said the current middle-school AD has not yet been approved for a contract for next year. That person also serves as the girls softball coach.
The superintendent said there will be no additional funds spent on the athletic department through the restructuring.
According to the South Range schools’ contract agreement, the total percent of the supplemental contracts has stayed the same.
For this year, the high-school AD received 21 percent of a teacher’s base salary while the middle-school AD received 10 percent. The ticket managers at both schools received 7 percent. That totals 45 percent. The high-school AD also received a $525 stipend for a cellphone.
Based on the base salary of a beginning teacher with a bachelor’s degree making $32,997, the high-school AD under the old formula would have made $6,929.37.
The new AD will get 22 percent of a teacher’s base salary while the assistant AD will get 13 percent and the ticket manager, for grades seven through 12, will get 10 percent. That also totals 45 percent. That means based on a first-year teacher with a bachelor’s degree base salary of $32,997, a new AD would make $7,259.34.
The Raiders had to vacate a win over East Palestine during the 2014 season due to using an ineligible player, which led to administrative leave for head football coach Dan Yeagley and Allegretto.
Dunham said this was a restructuring and not related to that situation.
In other personnel moves approved late Monday night after an executive session, Mark Giesy was hired as a high-school business technology teacher.
He was part of the reduction in force in the “first phase” of cuts after the levy was defeated to cut costs headed into the 2015-16 school year. He had previously been a middle-school STEM and industrial-technology teacher. His pay is not increasing because of the change. He will continue to make $34,487.81.
He is replacing a retiring science teacher at the high school. Dunham said Tuesday if there is a free period, Giesy could teach a middle-school STEM class. If there are no free periods for Giesy at the high school, then that likely means there will be no STEM offerings at the middle school during the next academic year.