Dover AD makes pitch for more paid coaches

DOVER — Peter Wotton, athletic director for Dover High School and Dover Middle School, implored the School Board for money to add eight needed coaches and assistant coaches.

"It seems like a lot, but I think the total for those eight positions is relatively low, about $18,902," Wotton told the School Board earlier this week.

One position he asked for was an assistant coach to work with both the girls and boys cross country teams. Most Division I schools in New Hampshire have a head coach for the boys team and a head coach for the girls team, he said. Dover has one for both.

"This year we had about 44 kids come out for our cross country team," he said.

He told the board at the Manchester invitational meet one of the athletes went down after a hot day of competition.

"The student-athlete was a couple of minutes from being loaded into the ambulance and being taken to the hospital," he said. "We had one coach there with 43 other kids trying to manage those kids in a very dynamic environment. ... I hate to throw the safety word out there, but it does put the district and our kids in a precarious position."

He also asked for the board to fund the high school's ski team, which has been in existence "for well over 30 years."

The coach receives about $500 from the school's coaching contingency account, Wotton said. The position had been funded until 2004-2005, when it was eliminated due to budget cuts, he said.

The ski team has 32 kids this year, and if the coach leaves "I don't know what we're going to do," Wotton said. "He does a fantastic job."

He told the board "we're putting that coach in a very tenuous situation" when the team travels to locations like Wildcat Mountain or Bretton Woods for a competition.

A ski team member was hurt a couple of weeks ago and suffered a concussion and a cracked tooth at an event, Wotton said. Fortunately, there were two teachers there volunteering their time and one "was able to get the student athlete home to her mom safely," he said.

He also asked the board to fund a coach's position for the high school's gymnastics team.

"We've had a gymnastics team for 19 years. We have yet to pay a coach in that position," he said. "These positions I've been asking for for eight, 10, 12, 15, 18 years. They're actually getting to this level so I'm excited about that."

The high school typically fields up to 56 teams, while there's usually 20 at the middle school, Wotton said.

Sometimes they have more, he said. For example, about 45 girls tried out for the 12-member high school volleyball team this year, he said.

"Instead of cutting 24 kids," they formed a reserve team, Wotton said.

The school's fiscal year 2020 total general fund budget is $64,800,207. The proposed FY 2021 budget to date is $67,445,555, approximately a $2.6 million or 4.08% increase over the current budget. If passed as now proposed, the budget would be about $1.6 million over the allowable city tax cap, Libby Simmons, the school district's business administrator, said recently.

Proposed new positions include a $130,000 assistant director of teaching and learning, a $130,000 dean of instruction for Dover's Middle School, an $85,000 elementary instructional coach and an $85,000 middle school instructional coach.