SCMS Supplements Approved

The Stephens County school system finalizes supplements at Stephens County Middle School.

Tuesday, the Board of Education unanimously approved proposed middle school supplements.

The high school’s supplements were approved last month, but board members voted to table the middle school supplements after concerns were raised about the consistency of some of the supplements.

Last week, Stephens County High School Athletic Director Frank Barden presented a revised supplement proposal for the middle school to the school board at their work session.

He said he only made a couple of changes with the goal of not taking money out of anyone’s hands and not going over what was spent last year, while making the supplements more even across the board.

Barden said one supplement change involved middle school soccer.

“We went $1500 for the head boys’ coach to make it closer (to the girls’ coach),” said Barden. “We did not want to take money out of the head girls’ coach, but we do have a plan that when these coaches change or take another position, we will put it at a set rate, such as $1500.”

Meanwhile, Barden said the supplement for the head Middle School baseball coach was also increased by $300.

He said those increases are covered by a corresponding decrease elsewhere in the supplement budget.

In addition, Barden said there are two sports at the middle school that are seeing their supplement go down next year due to changes.

“Tennis is going down because we had a retirement there,” said Barden. “We had a change so we had a chance to put it back and golf went down.”

Stephens County School Superintendent Bryan Dorsey said that the only changes were to athletic supplements at the middle school, as academic supplements there did not change from what had been looked at previously.