JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Working for free two months out of the year doesn\u2019t seem like something that would be asked, but that\u2019s exactly what four area school districts expect from their head football coaches each summer. <\/p>\n
Columbia, Duval, Nassau, and St. Johns counties are among the local school districts that pay their head football coaches on the standard 10-month teaching contracts. <\/p>\n
That means two months of working for free in the summer is the expectation. <\/p>\n
News4JAX has been detailing the issues with high school coaching pay for more than a decade, and there has been progress in the state legislature this year on addressing the low pay for extracurricular supervisors like coaches. <\/p>\n
Senate Bill 538<\/a> passed unanimously, while House Bill 731<\/a> has sailed through committee after committee. There\u2019s optimism from both chambers that the bills will make it to Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 desk for his signature next month. <\/p>\n Head football teaching contract lengthsDistrictSupplementContract lengthNassau$7,21710 monthsBradford$7,00012 monthsClay$6,75211 monthsUnion$6,31812 monthsSt. Johns$5,65010 monthsDuval$4,69910 monthsColumbia$4,61610 monthsFlagler$4,50011 monthsBaker$4,35011 monthsSuwannee$4,34512 monthsPutnam$3,80912 months<\/p>\n Those bills would permit extracurricular supervisors like coaches to ask superintendents for more money than their supplemental pay, and also for third-party pay from booster clubs to be allowed. <\/p>\n It\u2019s an inopportune time for public school districts to have to come up with more money for anything, let alone extracurricular leaders. Districts are losing funding by the millions as students opt for different school paths, like charter or virtual school learning. <\/p>\n But the legislature has the booster club option as a fallback funding source, a far more likely one for districts that are in the red. <\/p>\n What the bill doesn\u2019t address is another thorny topic of coaching pay: the teaching contract element. <\/p>\n Head football coaches receive a supplement for their work in that field. Those range from a low of $3,809 in Putnam County to a high of $7,217 in Nassau County. That pay only covers the fall and spring seasons. <\/p>\n But what about the offseason when recruiting trips are going strong and the weight rooms are open daily? <\/p>\n Depends on where coaches work. <\/p>\n In the News4JAX 11-county coverage region, four school districts (Columbia, Duval, Nassau, St. Johns) pay high school football head coaches on standard 10-month contracts. Three (Baker, Clay, Flagler) stretch those teaching contracts to 11 months. The outliers (Bradford, Putnam, Suwannee, Union) have their high school football head coaches on 12-month contracts. <\/p>\n RELATEDWait, districts expect coaches to work for free in the summer? <\/p>\n Yes, seven of them do. <\/p>\n Football coaching has become a year-round job, and some districts have recognized that challenge. In order to address the demands of the profession, seven area districts have moved head coaches off the standard 10-month teaching contracts that run from August to May and added one or two months to them. <\/p>\n Those extra days are based on the current teacher contract that they\u2019re on, so that can be a significant amount of pay for June and July.<\/p>\n While Columbia, Nassau and St. Johns have raised their coaching supplemental pay over the past 10 years, head football coaches there are still on 10-month contracts. <\/p>\n That means when the weight rooms are open in June and July, or coaches are traveling for camps, they\u2019re doing it for no paycheck. <\/p>\n Columbia, Nassau, and St. Johns have at least done something to address low coach pay in the last decade. <\/p>\n Duval hits the trifecta of failure for head coaches \u2014 no supplemental raise in more than 25 years, no pay for playoffs, and 10-month contracts. <\/p>\n The district has been a coaching turnstile. Only four of the district\u2019s 17 head coaches have been with their programs five years or longer.<\/p>\n A county like St. Johns does allow coaches there to make money from running camps in the summer through their LLC businesses, but coaches still have to rent the facilities from the county, and those prices aren\u2019t cheap.<\/p>\n How do coaching salaries work? <\/p>\n