Sports Officials Committee
UIL Panel Hears First-Hand Accounts
Of Pandemic’s Impact on ISD Budgets
The severe and immediate impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on Texas ISD budgets permeated discussion and action taken during the UIL Sports Officials Committee’s (SOC) virtual meeting on May 12.
- Note: The committee consists of superintendents and representatives of sports officials, public school athletic directors, coaches, and others, and makes recommendations to the rule making UIL Legislative Council. Also: The name of the committee was incorrectly reported in the print issues of TEN.
The discussion about the effects of the pandemic on school budgets was spurred by the committee’s deliberation on its main agenda item — that concerned the approval last October by the Legislative Council of what was billed at the time as $5 across-the-board increases in officiating fees for all sports for next school year. (The SOC had recommended $10 across-the-board officiating fee increases.)
High School Subvarsity Basketball
Unnoticed by many during the Legislative Council’s meeting was that the rule that was actually adopted provided for $5 flat-rate across-the-board officiating fee increases for all sports except subvarsity high school basketball for next school year.
The rule revision that the Legislative Council actually approved changes the current school year $50 flat rate officiating fee for high school subvarsity basketball to (for next school year) a range — based on the number of minutes played per quarter in a game — of: 1) $50 for six-minute quarters, 2) $55 for seven-minute quarters and 3) $70 for eight-minute quarters.
Increasing the subvarsity basketball officiating fees by up to $20 was too much for the state’s athletic directors association, and the SOC, by a 7-2 vote, approved a recommendation submitted by Houston ISD Athletic Director Andre Walker to ask the Legislative Council to approve a flat-rate officiating fee of $55 (a $5 increase from the current $50 flat rate fee) for subvarsity basketball, regardless of the number of minutes per quarter.
Bobby Cruz, athletic director for the 44,000-student United ISD, said that although the severity of the effect of the pandemic — immediate and unknown for the future — on school budgets, he would like to see the Legislative Council rescind all of the $5 across-the-board officiating fee hikes the council approved for next school year (a proposal approved months before the pandemic hit), but added that he knows this is not likely to happen.
Freeze Everything!
Cruz said that he has been told that his district expects to lose $10 million to $25 million due to the effects of the pandemic, and that if 1,000 of UISD’s students fail to return to school next school year, the district could lose $14 million alone. Cruz described the budgetary directives being given at his and other districts as “freeze everything.”
He added that the $200,000 that he had kept on hand in his athletic budget for spring sports (canceled by the UIL) was gone “overnight,” to be used by his district to buy Chromebooks.
Cruz said the money could have been used to negate the effects of the increases in officiating fees next school year and to pay increased stipends to coaches, who may have gone years without getting an increase in their stipends.
Rockwall ISD Athletic Director Russ Reeves sounded a similar theme. He estimated the $5 across-the-board officiating fee hikes will cost districts roughly $8,000 to $12,000 per high school, at a time when districts are contending with fiscal shortfalls due to the pandemic.
“That $5 across the board has a financial impact on every district,” Reeves said.
Supporting keeping the proposal as adopted by the Legislative Council for high school subvarsity basketball were Texas Association of Sports Officials (TASO) Executive Director Michael Fitch and John Miller, TASO’s football president.
Miller said that although he understands that there is a pandemic going on and that things have changed, the “bottom line” is that it would not be right to take back pay hikes promised to officials when, at the same time, school districts are not going to take back the raises given to their employees because schools are now in a situation of economic distress.
That led Dimmitt ISD Superintendent Ryan Davis — who chaired the SOC meeting — to observe that while “we may not be taking money away, we may be laying some off.”
Scrimmages
In a noncontroversial vote, the committee approved this proposal asking the Legislative Council to raise scrimmage fees paid to officials for all sports by $25 for next school year for scrimmages lasting up to three hours. The current hourly rates for scrimmages lasting more than three hours would increase by $25 per hour per sport under the recommendation.
UIL staff said this item had been inadvertently left off the Legislative Council’s October 2019 package of rules for approval. It was noted during the meeting that scrimmages are optional for schools, and the scrimmage fees go to local officiating chapters to provide educational activities for their members, especially for new officials.
The SOC recommendations will be submitted to the Legislative Council at its June 16 meeting.