Wake County Public School System
Mar 8, 2009
RALEIGH — On Feb. 6, the Wake County Public School System announced a hiring freeze effective immediately until at least June 30, and Wake County senior director of athletics Bobby Guthrie said that the freeze will impact athletics.
“If you’re hiring for a coaching position, which is always a teaching position, I’m not sure anything official could be done until the end of June on it," Guthrie said.
According to a memo from Superintendent Dr. Del Burns, all vacant positions will remain vacant until at least June 30. The only exception will be for school-based teachers, and the contracts given to those teachers will be terminated at the end of the school year.
Burns said in the memo that other positions that are "mission critical" must be approved by him.
Guthrie has been the senior director of athletics for WCPSS since August 1995. In nearly 14 years, Guthrie said he has not seen a situation like this.
“We have had freezes before, but nothing like this," Guthrie said. "This is truly unprecedented."
So far, Guthrie is not aware of any athletic programs who have coaching vacancies that will not be filled in time for the start of that sport's season.
“I have not heard from any athletic directors myself saying that they had a problem, but the thing is, they don’t have to work through me when they’re filling those positions," said Guthrie.
Currently, no coaching vacancies are posted on the WCPSS Web site, but Guthrie speculated that they may not post vacancies that cannot be filled.
The wording of the memo to WCPSS principals and other employees concerned Guthrie. Because the memo says the freeze is effective until "at least June 30," it is possible that the freeze could be extended if the economy does not improve.
“There is always the possibility that this could be an issue moving into the summer," said Guthrie. "Then you have to start wondering about fall sports like football."
There are no known coaching vacancies for football in Wake County this fall, but there are still several months before the season gets started. If a coach leaves Wake County and the hiring is extended past June 30, the school may not be able to fill the vacancy.
“That is certainly one thing that you think about, that people have to be hired in time for the start of the season," Guthrie said.
Millbrook athletic director Scott McInnes is already nervous about the hiring freeze in Wake County.
“[The hiring freeze] is going to be a problem at Millbrook. We’re losing about 400 kids, which means we’re losing teachers, and some of those teachers could be coaches," McInnes said.
Millbrook will begin the process of becoming a magnet school next year, and to make way for the new magnet students that the school system hopes will populate the school, about 400 students who currently go to Millbrook as their base school will be moved.
The school currently has an enrollment of about 2,400 students, and they're expecting to drop to between 1,900 and 2,000 students.
“We’re wondering how we’re going to replace them right now, and it’s a concern," said McInnes.
Right now, Millbrook does not know if any fall sports coaches will lose their jobs, but McInnes said he expects the freeze to impact the athletic program.
"Basically, we know it's going to make an impact. How, we don’t really know yet," said McInnes. “It’s going to be tough. We’ll find a way to make it work, but it's going to be tough.”
“When you haven’t ever gone through a situation like this, you don’t know exactly how it will be handled," Guthrie said of the WCPSS hiring freeze.
There is concern that the current economic downturn could have a major impact on athletic programs in Wake County.
"I’m certainly not putting out a gloom and doom type thing, but it may not be as quite as smooth as is has been in the last few years," said Guthrie. "Schools may have to re-evaluate and decide whether they will have as many coaches or what, but there has been no reduction there yet."
Burns has classified the current economic situation as an "economic hurricane," and WCPSS has had to cut their budget by more than $11 million.
There is good news for athletic programs in Wake County - the school system provides very little financial assistance to athletic programs, so cutting athletics all together would not save very much money.
According to the approved budget for the current school year, each high school received $945 from the school system to run their athletic department. The school system also spends $4,941 per school for swimming pool rentals, and $1,600 per school for paint and lime for the fields.
In addition, the Office of Growth Management purchases accident insurance, and that costs between $8 and $9 per athlete.
Uniforms, officials, equipment, dues, fines and other expenses must be purchased from gate receipts and by the school's booster club.
Guthrie said last summer that his budget for the 2007-2008 school year was about $150,000. "That's just a drop in the bucket," Guthrie said at the time.
Other school systems, like Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, give their high schools several thousand dollars to spend on athletic programs, and they include the cost for things like securities.
The most expensive part of high school athletic programs that comes from WCPSS is coaches pay, classified by WCPSS as "extra duties."
Extra duties include coaches and athletic directors, but it also includes things like mentors, band directors and team leaders, among other things.
WCPSS budgets $101,920 per high school for extra duty pay, $33,280 for middle schools, and $7,800 for elementary schools.
Right now, Wake County school board members are looking for ways to cut costs. Possibilities include increasing class sizes to reduce the number of teachers needed, eliminating some high school electives and ordering employees to do away with personal heaters, fans and coffee makers to cut electricity costs.
To this point, cutting athletics has not been proposed.
Contact Nick Stevens at stevens@ncsportsreport.com.
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