MASON CITY – The Mason City High School Athletic Director was told Monday that he would be terminated, until the school board later Monday voted 7-0 to hold off on that decision.
According to an email that was distributed by Mason City High School Athletic Director Bob Kenny, he explained that his position would be cut Monday. He makes $101K per year.
However, Monday night, the school board decided to hold off on terminating Kenny, as a number of students, coaches and teachers voiced strong opposition to the possible move.
The board may take up the issue at a later meeting.
The district, despite approval by voters of two new taxes last fall, is claiming that it is in financial dire straits and needs to make serious cuts to balance budgets. More cuts will be discussed at tonight’s school board meeting. Some coaches and teachers have been on alert that they could be without a job soon.
Meanwhile, more school buildings are slated to have upgrades and improvements in the near future, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. NIT reported last July that the district is about $36 million in debt. It pays over $24 million in salaries per year.
It has been said that School Superintendent Micich favors the fine arts programs over athletics. NIT hs also received word that Clear Lake is exploring ending a sharing agreement with Mason City with Micich, who is superintendent of both districts.
They could eliminate a couple administrator positions.One of the principles could take over for Hal Minear when he retires and still keep his job at the high school/John adams. They have 2-4 principals in each school plus Dean of school. The bad thing about all of this is our students still score low in most surveys.
The public cries to cut administration, so they cut an administrative position and the public cries. What is the school district supposed to do to make you people happy?
The most challenging decision the athletic director has to make on a given day is whether to get popcorn or a candy bar at the track meet.
That position can be easily absorbed by the school district, like many other administrators who do multiple jobs today.
This just for show. It’s like if the city threatened to sell the parks unless you vote to pay more taxes.
I think the school district has discovered the art of fear and manipulation of voters and residents who are totally and utterly asleep at the wheel. The public has allowed all this to happen by 1) staying away from the polls and 2) not watching the school district (admin) close enough and 3) trusting the Globe Gazette to tell them what is happening. You’ve all been bamboozled, good luck cleaning this $36 million dollar mess up. Clear Lake is next, but folks over there are mobilizing and I am betting will put a stop to some of this.
The only fix: Fire all the MC School District Administrators, conduct a full audit of the district finances stretching back 10 years, and start over with full transparency.
@Matt-If you look back a couple of years to when they remodeled the high school and middle school the spent around 40 million dollars and now they are 36 million in the hole. What that tell me is that they lied when they said the 40 million was surplus. This doesn’t even count the millions they spent on Lincoln. More lies. The taxpayers in this town are either lazy or stupid. Probably both.
Is there really any doubt that these people lie and spin everything they tell the public? I mean these people at the school district and city hall must get paid per lie. I bet they are all millionaires by now, they lie so much. I think the Glob gets a percentage. The only ones who lose are the nameless, lazy rabble who toil for peanuts and pay rent to their masters. It’s a sad state of affairs.
The Mohawk Trapshooting Team has done well without the support of the MCCSD for years. The only support they receive is that the kids do have the opportunity to letter. All of the coaches are volunteers and the kids/parents fund the team through hard work. Someone commented here that in other states you pay to play. The argument then comes that kids that want to play wont’ be able to afford to play. Volunteers will step forward to help that child find a way to play.
Your exactly right an if the kids real good. Newman will take him from mc anyhow!!!
My spelling bad today, sorry I wasnt the best in English classes @ MCHS. I’m just pissed this comes up every year @MCHS and then we give out raises. Terrible school board and the same goes for our Mayor and his council of puppets. I’ve said enough.
I have said this before and we are very heavy for pay in out very sad town for employment. From the top down starting with micich for every $10k they make they take a 1% pay cut, very easy to figure out: Say she makes $180k she takes a 18% pay cut, Bob Kenney says he makes $100k he would be 10% cut, Janitors @ 40k 4% cut, very simple and it gets every administrator,teacher,coach,down to the lowest individual. Maybe even got to the contracts of our transportation,food vendors and ask them also.
Anonymous, you are correct, there were no cuts, there was no wage freeze.
Soon to be a pay raise for all and everything will be fine. Yes, we are fools to drink the coolaid
Ahhhh. Another scary tactic that worked. Ya all got stirred up went to the school board meeting an the magic wand got waived again!!,! Fools all around!! You all idiots!!
@Anonymous-You are exactly right. It is nothing but a feeble attempt to scare us into giving them more money. If they need to save money they should cut Micich and the other top administrators. If they would go to a pay to play in sports they would save a lot too.
Bob Kenny is also the Associate Principal. He has two job titles. For Many families Sports is the way to a higher education. It is scholarships. Many of our students have taken to open enrollment. The atmosphere is on that Anita should take notice and so should the board. We are tired as a community as being treated like we are 2nd class if we do not make over 6 figures and we are of no value. Anita stated she works hard took on two distracts, LEAVE! YOU CAN”T BUDGET!
Funny how this comment was reported by two readers. Seems quite appropriate to me.
@Matt-I guess they just disagree with the content. I happen to agree with and like it.
Very soon MCHS may be a 3A school, if so, is everybody going to take a paycut because they fell to 3A? No they are not.
How many teachers are retiring at 55, 56, 57 years old and making as much money retired a they did working?
The unions have priced people right out of a job at many levels, and there is more to come. The taxpayer has learned to do with less, the government is going to be forced to do the same.
The reason there is a dire lack of funds is not the taxpayer problem, its because EVERYONE from the top down is overpaid!!
The Janitors make 45.000 dollars! At NIACC they make 13.50-14.00 a hour and probably work harder!
The teachers average 55.000 dollars with many making alot more than that! Thats 10.000-15.000 more than the average of all the other systems in N Iowa.
Micich basically makes 1.000 dollars a day worked! Really? I dont care if there is a 4A in front of their titles or not
Wow, and to think the county gave $10,000 to the city of Mason City this morning so that they could “promote” their RAGBRAI plans out of the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) fund.
Now we know how that concert is getting funded but our schools aren’t.
@Mediator-Yes they did donate to the concert. They stole the money from the pension fund. Someday we will have to figure out how to give that back or we will have people who were promised a pension sucking wind. Of course the council won’t care because they will be gone by then. What ever happened to saying no, it is not in the budget. If the city can not afford 4A then cut it back to 3A or else make the parents that want it pay for it. That is what they do in other states. Pay to play. Simple.
What do you expect from the caped liberal arts queen and her cronie board.
Unbeliveable!! Coordinating all the activites takes a lot of time, and working with all the other schools. How can this be eliminated? Take a look at the wage increases of teachers and the upper management…take a pay cut to save extra curricular activites. These activities also help in the growth of a student!!!
This is crap! How does a 4A school expect to be competitive when it is cutting one of the main athletic positions. It is crazy to think that the athletic director, of all positions, is the solution to this.
Anita needs to take a paycut, that would solve these budget issues.
This is just a bad joke perpetrated on the people of MC, and by that, I mean the student-athletes, who just fell even further behind the other “big schools” in Iowa. I think it’s high time MC threw in the towel as far as competing at the 4A level. The town can’t support it, the kids can’t compete due to a skewed playing field, and now their own school district won’t support them. That’s three strikes.
The Mohawks can and do compete at the 4A level quite well. The only sport they struggle in is football. The lack of numbers and a weak middle school program hurts the building of a strong program at the high school level. There are plenty of talent kids out there. Getting them to go out for sports is difficult with a lot of them working and other activities taking up there time.
The Horror!
No one cares.
Sadly, I think you are not far from the truth. The only ones who care are 1) the guy who lost his job 2) his family 3) student-athletes and maybe a few sympathetic co-workers. The town surely couldn’t give a rip.
This town doesn’t care because: 1. The residents are geriatric age and don’t care about supporting the youth of today. These folks use the excuse their kids graduated decades ago, so why should we pay now. 2. Mason City is filled with addicts and losers who don’t give a crap about an education, much less the extra-curricular activities that make a student a more well-rounded citizen.
Why do you think most educated people move away or leave after putting their kids through the school…
@anonymous-so what is keeping YOU here?
To your #1 point: Sadly, I have heard older folks make this very claim. And as the median age in MC continues upward, it has gotten worse. I think the older folks got full of themselves and stayed home last September, and the two school taxes passed. The district outsmarted them, and coupled with their lazy attitude about voting, the levies will plague their tax bills for years. I don’t feel too bad about that. The people of MC yearn to be subjected, wronged, and victimized, just so they can complain about it… but they rarely do anything about it.
To your #2 point: Too true. The town is infested with career criminals and sleezeballs. Some of them wear three-piece suits. The Cultural Crescent ought to be called the Criminal Crescent, there is so much lawbreaking going on there. And that’s the “good” part of town where the police station is located!
@Matt-that is because we get tired of seeing our taxes going up and up with no results. If someone was serious about this they would ask how a school system can spend 40 million in taxpayers money and two years later come back for more money. I would say the people who need to go are the top administrators who sucked down the money and now want more. Piss poor management if I have ever seen it. You can blame older people if you want but we paid for ours and didn’t piss it away.
@Matt-and just to carry on, the remodeling was a waste of time. I had a relative that did the surveying for the high school and they were told way back in the 60’s not to build there because it was swamp and had quicksand underneath. They did it anyway because of politics and now that school is going to crack every few years. It is a waste of money. How do you justify more money for less schools and less students.