Hello!
Our team has been around awhile but I have some question marks about finances as a parent getting more heavily involved. We are based in CA, are a high school club/team. We have two certificated teachers on staff that receive some money from Career and technical Ed but also collect a stipend.
From what I understand this totals close to $8k each. This does not include hotel fees, etc which come out of the teams budget. Can someone please provide any info or comparisons? We are a team that is under resourced. Thanks so much for your help.
A head basketball coach in MN near us makes around 4000 to 6000 per season. An assistant makes about half that. Robotics coaching compensation for teachers is in the range of 4500 to 0 depending on the school. Established programs tend to have a little more pay for the coaches. Travel compensation would depend on the school.
I donât know how it works in Minn, but here in Iowa having kids in sports actually saves the school district money. In Iowa, Physical Education is required every year â˘unless⢠you are in a sport. Adding assistant coaches at ~$2k each to allow more kids in a sport is a huge savings over hiring more PE teachers. (of course, robotics is not a sport in this regard)
For comparison here in Michigan (and at least how it works for our school district) is coaches, clubs admins, extracurricular âsponsorsâ are given a flat % rate of a full time Bachelors Degrees teacher salary based on your years of service.
For the head coach position itâs around 4% and other coaches (our district pays for 3 total coaches) at 3%. In my pocket after taxes is around between $1-2k (it goes up the longer I stay coaching). We donât travel as a team if we can help it, but usually my room and board would be covered.
I have paid for team food and parts out of that stipend amount and in some years I spend more than I get from the school. It varies wildly from school to school and state to state. $8k does seem like a lot, but not knowing what âunder-resourcedâ means in your teams case, or what the teams budget is, its hard to say. It also depends where the money is coming from and how itâs allowed to be spent. Some money in granting and from sponsors may be specific to paying coaches/mentors to keep up the talent pool. They canât give it to the team to spend unless the coach/mentor decides to turn it back over to the team out of their pocket afterwards.
In years where we have had 1 or 2 coaches we have asked to have the 3rd coach stipend given to the team and we are told NO. Not out of spite, but because of how the school gets the money from the state to give to us.
It can⌠In our district Robotics Team (when I was still teaching) could be counted for a graded credit. I had assignments, attendance requirements, and their competitions were their exams. It counted for .5 credit each season they fully âpassedâ. There was also a non-graded credit which was good for replacing an exploratory class. The graded was in place of a 3rd year science class. Without an accredited teacher involved to head that âclassâ it stopped, but the groundwork was laid for other districts to follow with approval from the state as well.
My memory is a little fuzzy in the exact details, I stopped teaching a few years ago now, but I found the docs! See below!
Edit: This was our documentation for the High School Credit.
So, I probably shouldnât say anything, but after seeing this go down locally recently, Iâm going to point something out.
There are two ways to help a team. The first is to see a need - you clearly identified one surrounding the food situation. Then go ask the mentors if you can help, or even run that duty. Clear your decisions through them, and do the job well. Stick in that lane until you get it nailed down, donât try to do too much.
The second way to help a team is to come onboard, identify all the things you donât like, and then try to blow it up. Your initial ask sounds like you think the teachers are getting too much money when in your opinion the team doesnât get enough.
There is a LOT of behind the scenes work that goes into head mentoring. I donât know your specific situation, but almost every head mentor I know spends a not insignificant amount of money on things that look small. Driving kids places. Picking up a lunch or food when meetings run over. Dozens of other things that add up to thousands over the course of a season.
Iâm particularly sensitive to that sort of thing, so donât take this the wrong way. Iâm just asking that you get involved in the right way. You may already be doing that - Iâm not sure.
Thank for trying to go about doing things the right way.
I would suggest - talk to those mentors before you go too far down the auditting trail. You may inadvertently cause them to throw their hands up and find yourself actually costing the team money if they get frustrated and stop paying for things that they used to cover out of their own pocket with no complaint.
I think the fiscal responsibility and tracking is a necessary thing in this day and age, but there is a bridge to far. Iâll give you an example Iâm familiar with.
Recently a local team had some parents dig into their finances, and the parents got very upset when they found that the team had been paying for the mentorâs hotel rooms at some travel events. A logical argument goes that having those rooms paid for is a pretty small reimbursement for the amount of time and energy that goes into running a team, but those parents pushed the issue because they decided their version of what was ârightâ was the only version that counted. They neglected to consider the amount of wear and tear on vehicles, gas, towing, trailers, and other costs that the mentors were simply absorbing. They cost themselves far far more money than they saved themselves in the end.
That is a point well taken-I would expect that we pay for mentorsâ hotel rooms, esp since they give so much time and energy (and are unpaid by the team too, though if they were, that still shouldnât be an issue). It makes sense that everyone has a different tolerance level for finances-I think mine is relatively high given that my partner also works in nonprofit admin and meals with sponsors and donors, gas, etc are legitimate expenses as that contributes to the overall success of the org and isnât something they are doing just for fun.
It can be a slippery slope though if there isnât anyone else that is looking at that info though. But totally understand where you are coming from. I would Love to see and hear how other teams handle it.
After reading your comment, I also deleted lots of my posts as I donât want to create drama or have my team targeted. Just needed to find a space to see if what I was seeking/thinking was strange given the context. Thank you SO much for taking the time everyone!
Tom_Line making good points about situations. Many schools do not have teams because no one wants to commit the amount of time required in a year for a few thousand dollars. The student interest is there, but the adult to manage them is not available.
Some schools hire full time people to run the robotics program. $8000 is well within the wide range of robotics coach compensation. Having 2 committed full time people is a win.
Thanks for your response. Your input is well taken and yes, it is hard to get advisors willing to commit. If you wouldnât mind taking a look back at the numbers I posted in terms of how available they are and communication, that would so helpful. We definitely donât have 2 full time people committed time wise. I deleted some posts because I donât want to harm my team.
But curious, given the $8k per person; what would be the time given? 2 hours a week? Being present all day at comps or only a few hours each and sometimes neither?
I can only speak to my area really. The reality in California is different. The suggestion of discussing with the coaches is a good one.
What you described would be very desirable in northern rural MN for a teacher when comparing to what is currently earned by most. That does not mean there is not active campaigning to improve current compensation. 8 years ago, my compensation was around $500. That almost covered my hotels for a season. It definitely did not cover the robot parts, tools, meals, student meals and hotel, gas mileage, time, etc.
The labor is a bit of love and insanity⌠It also makes a difference in lives.
The team I head mentor is based out of Pennsylvania, not California, but at our school the team has an activity club sponsor and assistant club sponsor position, paid ~$36/hour (same as other clubs) but capped at ~75 hours (~$2700) and ~50 hours (~$1800) respectively. None of our mentors, including myself and the assistant activity sponsor, are teachers for the district.
Our FRC schedule:
Weekly meetings: 5 hours/week for 36 weeks = 180 hours.
Off-season: 5-10 extra hours/week for 4 weeks = 40 hours.
Competitions: 2 district events (2.5 days) + 1 district championship (3 days) = 96 hours.
Summer: 0 hours (wish it could be 2.5-5).
Total = 472 hours.
$2,700/472 = $5.72/hour.
Note that this doesnât include the countless hours outside of meetings I spend: supporting our booster club & sponsor recruitment efforts, outreach events, mentoring our newly formed FTC team (~extra 2-6 hours/week), coordinating with school departments, responding to student inquiries on slack, and tidying up the room after meetings, or as Tom_Line mentioned, out of pocket expenses/donations to the team.
Running a similar breakdown with the numbers youâve given in your deleted post, your teamâs teachers are one of the lucky ones receiving a fair salary of $26/hour.
As a side note, email addresses are considered personal identification information (PII) so I can see why the teachers were reluctant to share that information.
Hello, I did have one more question wondering if someone might answer it for me here. How do I know if Iâve been designated as a mentor on the dashboard? I can click on a link that allows me to download a mentor certificate, but I cannot click to see who the Mentors are, or even the youth members on our team.
That sounds normal, the personal information is segregated to the Team Administrator, Lead Mentor 1, and Lead Mentor 2, and possibly one other contact type.
If your goal is to help with dashboard tasks, youâll need to be designated the Team Administrator (iirc) by Lead Mentor 1 or 2.
Thank you! Wondering though, should I be seeing somewhere in my profile or dashboard that I am a mentor? I canât find the designation anywhere. Thanks so much.
As a point of comparison, I am a âpaid walk on coachâ for a California based school, which was a requirement in order to be able to be on campus with students and have key access to our shop. There is also a school advisor who is a staff member/teacher there and I believe gets a stipend similar to that of any teacher supporting after school activities.
To be a âpaid walk on coachâ Iâm required to be in their payroll system, and for this year my payment from the district is $195.60 . Note that this is before the annual mandatory out-of-pocket first aid training, tuberculosis testing, and after things like district fingerprinting fee deductions. Itâs basically a wash after those expenses.
On average, I spend 600 hours/year supporting the team and after purchase reimbursements, spend an additional $2500/year in nonreimbursed purchases out of pocket. Not counting wear and tear on my truck, most gas to haul rented trailer, etc. I have a decent paying engineering day job so I think of it like any other technical project or hobby I spend money on annually.
