FARMINGTON — A 10-member committee that includes parents and students will be involved in the search for a new head football coach at Mt. Blue High School.
RSU 9 Superintendent Tom Ward told the school board Jan. 14 that he would like the committee model to be used for hiring head coaches.
“We’re trying to make sure the committee is diverse,” he said. “We want people to feel people’s interests are represented.”
Parent Judy Vining of Farmington sent a letter to the school board on behalf of herself and her husband, Kevin Vining, about coaches in December. She wrote that they would like to see the school board create a committee with guidelines for hiring all new coaches.
“As parents, we feel it is really important to have a few members from the community be involved in the process,” she wrote. “Ideally the committee would be expanded to include a community member with knowledge of the specific sport, have at least one parent involved (with or without a vote for final candidate), continue to have a booster club member and other individuals with a vested (interest) for the players at our school. We feel having more individuals involved than just the athletic director would be beneficial to all our athletes.”
There will be parents on the committee and two students, Ward said.
“We asked parents of the youngest athletes — freshmen,” he said, because they will work with the coaches the longest as they go through school.
There is a section on the district’s website, www.mtbluersd.org, that allows parents to give feedback on coaches, he said.
In her letter, Vining called the form “generic.” She said it does not allow for specific enough information, and not everyone is comfortable voicing concerns that can be shared. The Vinings and a few other parents met with the athletic director and assistant athletic director last year to voice concerns and detail their expectations for a new coach for another sport, she wrote.
“These expectations were: first to be a mentor, be professional, provide training of the fundamentals of the sport, teach sportsmanship, be respectful, be a team leader, and then the championships will come,” she wrote.
Ward said he had not realized that funding for Sports Done Right, a product of the University of Maine in Orono, had run out, and the program is no longer a requirement. The program set guidelines on a variety of aspects pertaining to youth athletics in middle and high school, including coaching.
RSU 9 board Vice Chairwoman Claire Andrews of Farmington said she has been a director with children in school and never knew about the evaluation form.
Coaches are supposed to be evaluated each year before they are reappointed, Ward said.
Director Betsey Hyde of Temple said she personally appreciates coaches who want to be evaluated.
It seems the discussion is on athletic coaches, but there are other coaches, Director Bill Reid of New Sharon said.
Previously, all co-curricular coaches and advisers had to go through Sports Done Right, Board Chairman Mark Prentiss of Industry said.
Director Iris Silverstein of Farmington said that part of the Vinings’ letter talks about guidelines.
“I’m going to start with head coaches,” Ward said. “We have done a lot of work on the hiring process. Just like everything else we could improve.”
dperry@sunjournal.com
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