D.C. high schools still have not received their athletic funding for the current school year, despite D.C. Public Schools’ promise to release the budgets by last week. Some schools’ athletic directors and coaches meanwhile, still have not been paid for work they did last school year.
“Athletic budgets must be monitored by our office to ensure that Title IX compliance is met,” Marcus Ellis, DCPS’s athletic director, told The Washington Examiner when asked about the holdup. “It’s our responsibility to ensure that funds at each school is being distributed fairly between girls and boys sports.”
Athletic directors expected their budgets for the 2010-2011 school year last summer, and many have struggled to keep kids in uniforms and equipment up to snuff without the funds, The Washington Examiner first reported. Many coaches and athletic directors told The Examiner they hadn’t been paid for work they did last year, let alone this year.
At Coolidge Senior High School, Keino Wilson said he still has not been paid $2,200 for coaching tennis last year, nor has he received this year’s athletic director fee of $2,900 — as he gears up to coach tennis again within weeks. “I do it for the kids, because the money is so minimal,” Wilson said — but he’s paying out of pocket for many of his athletes’ needs, making the missing pay a matter of breaking even.
“My kids, they don’t have money, their parents don’t give them money,” he said. “I buy gas, I take them to the matches, I buy Gatorade, I buy food, bananas and oranges.”
After The
Examiner contacted the school system on Feb. 16, Ellis sent an e-mail to high school coaches and principals: “We have received great news! We will be able to disseminate your individual school budgets beginning next week.”
But on Friday — the end of “next week” — the schools’ athletic directors still had not received funding.
Ellis said he is meeting with athletic directors Tuesday. “High schools can begin the process of spending on Tuesday. That includes getting quotes from vendors and providing requisitions for purchase. They must go through the purchase process,” he said.
Ballou Senior High School athletic director Tony Morton said his teams are getting by, but they want the money for new uniforms and equipment for spring sports. “Particularly over here in Ward 8 we’re used to doing the best with what we have,” he said.
Interim Chancellor Kaya Henderson said in an e-mail to a Schools Without Walls Senior High School parent concerned about the school’s spring lacrosse program, “I understand your frustration and appreciate your commitment to supporting Walls in spite of our shortcomings. We are working diligently to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.”
