Coaching and Education: Who Makes the Call?

On Wednesday, June 8, 2011, the East Sac County school board terminated the varsity girls’ basketball coaching contract of Elementary Principal, Mike Fischer after 24 years of coaching.  The termination resulted from a policy enacted at an April specifically forbidding “school administrators from taking additional jobs – within or outside of the school district – without prior board or Superintendent approval,” (Strong, 2011).  On April 22, Kevin Fiene, Superintendent at East Sac, sent Fisher an email stating that he had until April 27 to resign from either his elementary principal position or his head coaching position in accordance with Board Policy 303.9 (Schable, 2011). 

Fischer has been successful both as elementary principal and as head basketball coach, proclaiming “test scores for the elementary were higher this year than ever before and the girl’s basketball team had their best record since the schools began sharing girl’s basketball,” (Blankman, 2011).  Of course the ability to hold an administrative role and provide extracurricular coaching responsibilities varies by individual, but who has the power to determine the ability of an individual to qualitatively manage his/her responsibilities?  The East Sac school board and Fiene believe the policy allows administrators to keep their primary focus on student academic achievement (Strong, 2011).  In light of this newly enacted school board policy, the question of whether teachers should be allowed to also hold extracurricular coaching positions in addition to their teaching responsibilities needs to be addressed.  In actuality, is it not the teacher’s responsibility to make the primary focus student achievement in the classroom? 

Blankman, J. (Reporter). (2011, June 9). East sac school board terminates girls basketball coaching contract [Radio news article]. (Executive producer), Carroll, IA: Carroll Broadcasting Company.

Schable, A. (2011, April 25). Longtime coach suspects new policy is personal. Daily Times Herald, Retrieved from http://www.carrollspaper.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=12009&TM=37944.65

Strong, J. (2011, April 27). East sac's job policy may be a rare one. Daily Times Herald, Retrieved from http://www.carrollspaper.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=12015&TM=37944.65