GILMER COUNTY, Ga. — The athletic supplement schedule for Gilmer coaches was an important topic of conversation at the Gilmer Board of Education’s latest meeting. The board also recognized several students and approved a $2,000 district bonus.

Athletic Supplements

During a discussion on Georgia’s Charter School Systems, both Superintendent Dr. Ridley and board member Doug Pritchett highlighted the flexibility afforded to Gilmer County Schools because of their charter status. “The things we’re talking about are issues of local control,” Ridley said, “That’s really what being a charter allows us to exercise.” He also noted that the charter status also allows the school system more freedom to use local money, create curriculums, and run school programs that work best for the community.

That monetary freedom includes approving supplements for coaches, which was an important topic of conversation at the meeting. The athletic supplement schedule was brought to a vote, with one board member voting against and one abstaining.

Board member Joe Pfluger criticized the large disparities between coaches’ pay scales, depending on the sport they are involved in: “We’ve made up some ground this year, thankfully, and I appreciate that ground we’ve made up, but I think we have to level that playing field, and we have to work hard at it because every coach is equally important and they put in equal amounts of time.” Noting that coaches are involved in creating the supplement schedules, Pfluger criticized the current process as a “slippery slope.” Going forward, he said, “I‘d also like to see it move towards a committee that would involve top-level administrators and school-level administrators to create this list, so no coaches are making decisions to build this list in the future.”

In response, Chairman Watkins said “You can’t treat them all equal … These teams that don’t bring in the money … they want an equal cut to everything? … it don’t work that way.” While Watkins cited the revenue differences between sports, Plfuger noted that athletic supplements are paid for with local taxes and not each team’s revenue.

Gilmer Head Coach Paul Standard also addressed the board, “I continue to hear the same ‘We want all coaches to be paid the same.’ … There is not one high school in this state where each head coach gets paid the same amount of money. That’s a fact. Is it right? I’m not going to stand here and tell you that it’s right. Am I going to tell you one coach worked harder than another? That would not be fair ‘cause I don’t know what any other coach does.” Standard also objected to Plfuger’s suggestion of an independent committee, “To say we don’t need to have a coach involved in making these decisions, that was referring to me, and that is a direct question of my integrity.”

The updated athletic supplement schedule can be found here.

Other Business

The board approved a bonus of $2,000 for all Gilmer County School District employees, a provision in the state budget for the fiscal year of 2022.

Coach Evans recognized the Clear Creek Middle School soccer team and their second year as Mountain League champions. “I mean, winning one year is impressive, but two years in a row? That’s awesome guys, good job. But, they do make my job easy, because they have a love and passion for this game, and when you have people who love something and have a passion for it, you know, the coaching part is easy,” Evans said.

Assistant Principal Matt Johnson also recognized four Gilmer High School Students who placed in the Georgia High School Association State Literary Championships. Madaalyn McMurty placed fifth in the International Extemporaneous Speaking-AAA event. Jordan Sharp, Addie Davenport, and Emma Heaslip also placed fifth in the The Girls Trio AAA event. The trio also performed at the meeting.

Continuing a discussion that took place during a prior meeting, the board voted to table further action on the Legion Road gas tank project. While Superintendent Dr. Brian Ridley had originally planned to recommend a bid approval at the meeting, he told the board: “I have some concerns about the bid, and I want to make sure that it’s absolutely perfect before we move forward.” One of the concerns raised during Monday’s work session was a difference of over $130,000 in two project bids that the board is considering.