At the Sept 28 meeting, the Hastings School Board discussed recent changes to the pay structure of local school sports officials, and how those changes may affect new and existing participants. Previously presented as perevent contracts for officials, it has been transitioned to a perhour payment system to reflect current district needs.

Superintendent Rob McDowell began the discussion by saying, “We made an adjustment, and the board already did already approve noncontracted rates of pay. In theory, it seemed like it was working really well until we got to the school year. In operation, we discovered that we had some other things that, once you start going through and try to pay all the different positions, it just wasn’t working out the way it theoretically should have. We needed to go back and review that, working with the athletic directors.

“There are positions that worked for a certain amount of pay that was divided up in terms of up to 3 hours, over 3 hours to 6 hours, and then over 6 hours to 12 hours, and there was a rate assigned to that. What we were attempting to move to was a flat hourly rate. What ended up happening as you calculate that out is that someone who has been with the district, and is used to receiving an automatic amount for up to three hours, by the hourly rate they’d actually be getting less than what they had last year. We’re grandfathering those people in, so if they were working with us last year, they’re still going to get paid that rate. But anyone that is hired new is going to get an hourly rate, which is really more in line with how we should be paying people. If you’re working two hours, you get paid for two hours.”

Citing a recommendation from the Athletic Office, Mc-Dowell added “They’ve budgeted based on what they believe they need, to get to $20/hr rather than $25/hr. They want that changed back to $20/hr so that that’s in line there.”

In regards to middle school sports, McDowell said, “We did look at other middle schools, and how they were paying their officials. Trying to remain competitive, we’ve changed our officials’ compensation to almost be at where our ninthgrade officials are right now, but we’ll step it this first time and look at stepping it again maybe in a year. It is quite an increase from what it was, but other districts already made the jump and we were left lagging behind. We didn’t really know that until we got to the fall sports season.”

Board Chair Brian Davis commented, “There has been a shortage of officials, so districts very quickly moved to up the rate of pay to try to get officials back in. It worked to a certain degree, but now we’re sitting with us paying less, which means officials will choose to officiate games other than ours, which leaves us holding the bag with no officials. Even if you don’t agree with the Joneses, you have to keep up, although I know why it was done. It had to do with the shortage of officials going on in the state. It’s a bit of a conundrum we’ve got going on.”

The motion was passed with five yes votes, with Treasurer Lisa Hedin abstaining.

Football referee officiating at a Hastings/Apple Valley game.Photo by Bruce Karnick.