In an effort to maintain a competitive athletic edge with the rest of the Second Region, the Trigg County Board of Education voted 4-1 on Thursday evening in favor of realigning its high school athletic director position from a paid stipend to a salaried slot.
Superintendent Bill Thorpe noted its something he’s thought about since he was brought on in Cadiz, and that student-athletes deserved to have the full attention afforded in the pursuit of district, regional and state championships.
Furthermore, this comes as a co-created idea under new Trigg County High School principal Tim Bush, who pointed to site-based funding for this endeavor, which under the motion will be a two-year trial process before a revisit after the 2022-23 school year.
Holly Greene, Trigg County Schools finance officer, noted it would pay quite similarly to the “Rank J” custodial supervisor salary scale — which, according to trigg.kyschools.us, opens at $32,047 with 0-to-3 years experience, and tops out at $40,801 with 25-plus years of experience. It’s a 240-day job with 10 extended days alongside.
Trigg County’s current athletic director, Matthew Wilder, now moves solely into his role — with cross country coach Ken Harrison and football coach Chris Ezell as his assistants.
Similar to athletic trainers at high schools, the athletic director position in Kentucky — and across the country — holds weight as a salaried position for a number of reasons, particularly with scheduling, quartermastering and financing as key parts of the job description.
Hiring coaches is part of it, too, and it’s something Bush said he and Wilder have been diligently focused on lately in regards to the Wildcats baseball team.
The athletic director position has been something of a hot-button subject at Trigg County for the last 2-to-3 years, when in 2019 the Board voted unanimously to move the job to a stipend position after Matt Ladd, director of operations, held the title underneath a combined salary.
Under that structure, a high school AD and middle school AD each received two assistants — with a combined payout of six jobs totaling $21,355. Wilder and former football coach Coby Lewis were named co-athletic directors in July 2019.
In other board news:
- With virtual learning curbing accelerated learning, and the opportunities to take the ACT scant, the Board unanimously voted to offer waivers of requirements for the 2021-22 Cadiz Rotary and Thoroughbred Academy scholarships.
- The Board swiftly moved unanimously to approve Sherman Carter Barnhart as the owner/contractor of all upcoming BG-1 plans on campus — which will eventually lead to several improvements: a new middle school roof and entryways, a new pressbox, a new multi-purpose athletic facility (after a rewritten BG-1 plan), emergency improvements to gas pumps and tanks for the bus garage, and other accoutrement.
