Athletic Director to Become Stipend Position

The high school will split its dean of students/athletic director position to respond to warnings issued by a college accreditation group.

Superintendent Lynne Celli announced at Wednesday’s School Committee meeting that the district will immediately post two positions for the 2011-12 school year — a dean/curriculum leader and an athletic director with reduced teaching responsibilities.

Both are temporary positions, likely to remain in place at least two years and maybe longer, she said after the meeting.

The changes will be made with the funding in the approved budget for the next school year, Celli said.

The dean/curriculum leader will be paid with a salary.

The athletic director will be paid by a stipend and have a reduced classroom teaching load. 

In an April memo to the superintendent, Swampscott High School Principal Layne Millington proposed a $7,467 stipend for the AD and $25,876 for the teaching responsibilities.

Alison Argentieri currently serves as the dean of students/athletic director for the school.

But Millington stated in the memo that the combined duties are too much for any one person.

Furthermore, he said the dean of students position needed to be assigned curriculum and other duties. 

Millington said in the memo that this work includes enacting the superintendent’s action plan, the school improvement plan and responding, within five years, to 56 recommendations by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.

“The work required to accomplish this timeline is Herculean in scope and is under a strict NEASC driven timeline,” he states in the April 11 memo.

The school hasthat it needs to improve three standards: mission and expectations;  curriculum; and assessment of student learning

The superintendent said the decision to create the temporary positions was made by her and the school principal as well as others on the school leadership team.

She wants to fill the positions with well qualified people as soon as possible.