Tuesday, November 28th 2000, 12:00 am
TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- High school football coaches in Oklahoma earn an average of 38 percent more than high school teachers, according to a published report.
Oklahoma high school teachers earn an average annual base salary of $31,115, but high school football coaches earn an average salary of $42,868, the Tulsa World reported in Tuesday's editions.
The disparity is far greater in the state's most prominent football programs. The 50 highest-paid football coaches in the state make an average annual salary of $52,512, or 69 percent more than the average teacher.
"I had no idea Oklahoma was paying that well," said Milt Bassett, executive director of the Oklahoma Coaches Association.
"I am certainly not unsupportive of athletics," state Superintendent of Schools Sandy Garrett said. "I just think the classroom teacher needs to be the prize employee of a district."
In many cases, classroom teaching is secondary when it comes to paying coaches. Only seven of the 20 highest-paid coaches are full-time classroom teachers.
Full-time salaries for football coaches range from the $68,600 paid to Ada's Larry McBroom, who has no classroom assignment, to the $30,186 paid to Newkirk's Sonny Schovanec, who teaches history.
McBroom's salary is just $6,400 less than Garrett's and nearly double that of the average Ada High School classroom teacher. It also tops the salaries of several superintendents across the state.
The World examined the contracts of each of the 315 varsity head football coaches at the state's public schools. Private schools, which do not have to comply with the Oklahoma Open Records Act, did not respond to the newspaper's information request.
Most Oklahoma high school football coaches receive extra-duty pay on top of their teaching contracts. Coaching pay, like other extra-duty pay, is determined by each district.
One trait is universal, though: Extra-duty pay for football is consistently much higher than extra-duty pay for other sports and activities. And football coaches often are reimbursed separately for other football-related extra duties, such as supervising weightlifting, working summer hours, assisting lower levels of school football and serving as an athletic director, assistant athletic director or athletic coordinator.
State teacher salaries range from about $25,000, for a first-year teacher with a bachelor's degree, to around $45,000, for a teacher with at least 25 years of experience and a doctorate degree. Many football coaches earn above-average salaries simply because they're longtime teachers.
But coaches are often paid in accordance with the success and stature of their program.
"My personal opinion is it looks like in some cases there is an overemphasis on football," said Keith Ballard, executive director of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association. "We need to be careful about not getting out of balance."
It's not so much that many football coaches in Oklahoma are overpaid, Bassett said, but that teachers are underpaid. Indeed, Oklahoma teacher salaries are consistently ranked near the bottom nationally.
"I'm very disappointed our pay continues to be so low for teachers," Garrett said, "and so many of them have to look at other opportunities to enhance their pay by going into extra-duty situations, whether it's driving a bus or being a coach or sponsoring cheerleaders."
November 28th, 2000
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