Booster policy for coaches at Bethel Park to be revised again
For the second time in six months, the Bethel Park School Board will tweak its policy on sports booster organizations.
Changes to the policy in August sparked complaints from coaches, athletes and parents. The school board has been meeting with the booster organizations in an attempt to address those concerns.
The board had the first of three readings at the committee meeting Feb. 21. The policy will likely be approved after the final reading at the March 21 committee meeting.
The district will continue to forbid booster groups from supplementing coaches’ salaries. Some booster organizations gave coaches stipends, but the board put a stop to that practice because it might create inequitable treatment of coaches in girls’ and boys’ sports. That would be in violation of federal Title IX law.
Booster organizations paid coaches to conduct summer sports camps and some thought the previous policy would jeopardize that arrangement. Board members said the camps could still be held and coaches’ compensation could flow through the municipality’s parks and recreation department.
Booster organizations will be able to give gifts to coaches and volunteers at the end of the season, but the value of those gifts must not be more than $250 per coach.
In another matter, Bethel Park teachers will soon start working with mathematicians from Carnegie Mellon University. The school board was expected to approve the partnership at the Feb. 28 meeting.
CMU researchers are interested in how young minds think about math, said Janet O’Rourke, assistant to the superintendent. So, graduate students from CMU will observe classes in the elementary and middle schools and work one-on-one with those students.
“They will also share different strategies for teaching math, which will help our teachers,” O’Rourke said.
The board will also award a contract for installing electrical panels and a transfer switch, which is part of the renovation project at Independence Middle School. The work will take place this summer.