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35 By Thomas Jones, Sports Editor
New Westlake football coach Darren Allman will earn $115,760 per year, based on records released by the Eanes school district following an open records request filed under the Texas Public Information Act.
Allman serves as the Eanes athletic director and Westlake’s head football coach. He replaced Derek Long, who announced his impending retirement in January.
Allman’s salary includes $107,000 as the Eanes school district’s athletic director, a stipend of $6,400 to coach football and an additional $2,000 athletic stipend that covers expenses such as travel. In addition, Allman receives a $360 phone stipend.
Based on a 2006 article in the Austin American-Statesman that examined the salaries of every public high school football coach in Texas, Allman will be among the highest-paid coaches in the state. That study listed five coaches with annual salaries more than $100,000. Ennis’ Sam Harrell was the highest paid coach in the state with a yearly salary of $106,000, according to that Statesman article.
Long made $88,233 that year, according to the article. At the time, Long served as Westlake’s head football coach and the Eanes school district athletic director.
The same article listed Allman’s 2006 salary as $90,539 at Odessa Permian, where he served as the head football coach and the school’s athletic coordinator for four years before accepting the Westlake job.
[...] The Westlake Picayune has used the state’s open records law to show that the new Westlake football coach will be paid $115,760 per year, making him one of the state’s best-paid high school football coaches. [...]
And we have to pack our classes because we can’t afford teachers? Mr. Allman might be very good but can we really afford this in this economy?
Let’s not forget the icing on the cake of this latest deal. Have we figured into Mr. Allman’s compensation package relocation expenses, Chaps Club gifts, membership dues for professional athletic/coaching organizations, magazine subscriptions, clothing, shoes, stipends for coaching clinics and more? Will Mr. Allman be teaching any academic courses? Will Mr. Allman be bringing members of his current coaching staff to Eanes ISD? How sweet is this deal, and can we afford to consume these extra calories for athletics while watching other district programs waste away or face elimination all together?
Looks like he has earned every penny and then some this year.
What an amazing year for this team and this community!
So…the football coach should earn more than the classroom teachers?
Right on – Mike B!! – a great year, great kids, great coaches, great people, and great parents… to bad we have a couple of people that want to write negative blogs all the time whos only goal is to destroy what we have in this great community!!!! – they dont care the topic they just want to bash. Negative never wins!! – Go Chaps and bring it home this weekend!!!
Looks like Allman was the right man for the job.
Taxpayers are not questioning the choice of Coach Allman, but cringe at the Eanes leadership’s decision to pay any coach more than a classroom teacher. Let’s give the players some credit. Most of them have been playing since elementary school. Their hard work has paid off and the wins shouldn’t be solely attributed to the multitudes of overpaid high school coaches. Would they have lost had the number and salaries of coaches been reduced ‘in alignment’ with other district programs?
If the mission of this public school district is to win state in football every year, then yes, Allman is worth the money — to those who share that priority.
What should the goal of public education be that doesn’t include getting a “100″ or “winning score” on every test, whether the test is academic or extracurricular?
It is my belief that celebrating mediocrity causes inferiority, and that overall and on balance, EISD is not and should not be guilty of that.
Need2know, That is exactly the reason our intellectually gifted children no longer attend Eanes ISD: Mediocrity. No advanced math or advanced language arts or foreign language in elementary. Even the “gifted” services are mediocre. (We know. Our children are identified as gifted in Eanes ISD and were enrolled in the district.) We made the decision to remove our children from the mediocrity into private school.
Anonymous,
You might be the first person in the history of high school athletics to use the phrase “overpaid high school coaches”. You have no idea the amount of hours and different tasks Allman and other coaches across the state handle. You are completely out of your element here.
Exactly, not exactly. Where we may disagree is the importance of “overall and on-balance”. Allowing that certain things are not offered in elementary school or provided to certain persons or groups of persons, does not necessarily make EISD mediocre overall and on-balance. I don’t think any public school system, and probably most private schools, can or should provide everything for everyone. It is not realistic.
Thank God for your intellectually gifted children, and for each and every one of our children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, … . I congradulate for making the choices and commitments to satisfy what’s best for your children’s education. Given the current funding approach for education in Texas, sending children to private schools involves added cost (usually and unfortunately). Consequently, I support school vouchers for tax-paying parents who send their children to private schools that they believe better satisfy their needs. It is their money and should be their choice.
Ask the president of the University of Chicago, the 7th ranked University in the world, why he and the Board of Regents are committing an unprecedented amount of money and time into the football program.
Why? You might ask.
To create a fuller sense of community, a more complete college experience and to raise the overall standard of the university. In his own words, Robert Zimmer, President of the University of Chicago.
Diggin it, no doubt that the coach puts in a lot of hours and does many different tasks, but so do teachers, especially high-school academics teachers who carry large student loads as well as extra-curricular sponsorships, security duties, committee participations and many other duties. When people refer to “overpaid” coaches, they are likely talking in terms of scale. Is the coach really worth more than double that of an experienced, advanced-degreed master teacher? And in a district that regularly tells its constituents it can only afford all of its teachers if it raises a million a year in donations, is it reasonable to pay the coach six figures? This is not to say that I don’t congratulate the entire coaching staff for their achievements in working with our kids. I do. But our teachers are the educators, and they deserve equal accolades, and in my opinion, equal pay.
He is the athletic director of the district and the head football coach. His pay makes sense to me.
Exactly, While there are some private elementary schools in the area that offer opportunities that EISD does not, there is no other high school in the area that comes close to Westlake in terms of academic and extracurricular activities.
Not Exactly – If a public school district (regardless of the TEA rating) fails to provide a program that meets an individual student’s needs, then the district is “failing” for that student. And yes, there are definitely elementary and secondary private schools in Austin that are far superior to Eanes ISD for intellectually gifted students.
Football is the only sport where the head coach gets to negotiate their salary. Districts tie the campus Athletic Director and head football coaching duties together to justified the large salaries. This is a discriminatory practice considering women will never be able to serve in the capacity as campus athletic director because they would never be hired as a head football coach in Texas. Coaches of other sports put in just as many hours, they have to teach academic courses, and they are paid according to the district teaching salary schedule plus the allotted stipend for the designated sport. Shouldn’t Coach Bennett, the head volleyball coach at Westlake make just as much money as Coach Allman, the head football coach…he doesn’t. The head football coach does not teach any academic courses and on some campuses, neither does the offensive/defensive coordinators. People keep making the argument that football brings in all kinds of money well, a lot of money is spent on football. With football, newly hired coaches are released from current contacts, for the spring, to begin preparations for their new coaching positions. People hold their tongue about the discriminatory practices and inequities when it comes to football in texas, compared to the other sports, because campus athletic directors, i.e. head football coaches, do the hiring and speaking out would be professional suicide…winning in any sport is good for the community; don’t lump football coaches with other coaches because they are given preferential treatment and catered to…it is a shame that more people aren’t outraged.
Coach Allman & his coaching staff are in demand. Replacement of him with the same caliber of athletic director/football coach would cost more money than replacing any classroom teacher. Plain economics.
If the Eanes taxpayers were allowed to vote on the salaries of coaches and teachers, I’m willing to bet the teachers would come out ahead. Supply and demand? Who exactly is it that believes coaches are more deserving than classroom teachers? This voter supports hiring and keeping award winning classroom teachers (and those awards would be as simple as recognizing the time and attention spent nine months a year with each student enrolled).
Supply & Demand, here’s some other plain economics. This school district is operating in a deficit and by its own admission couldn’t afford its teachers when it was operating in a surplus unless EEF raised a million a year.
It would be interesting to know if Eanes made money from the football playoffs. How much? Into what fund?
District documents (legal invoices) reflect that Eanes ISD paid private attorneys to set up the legal arrangements that allow the Chap Club to make money from the broadcasting rights of district football games. Since we as taxpayers fund athletics doesn’t it seem that any money earned by broadcast should go into the General Fund (199) and not the Chap Club? And why are district taxpayers funding the private legal services related to district broadcasting agreements … broadcasts that apparently profit the Chap Club and athletes only. Just another “creative” way to insure that the Eanes ISD athletics program is not “cut” and is instead continuously improved and funded at the highest levels.
What about Texas UIL money from the playoffs? That ought to be a pretty penny.
By the same token, how much did UIL volleyball playoffs bring into Eanes?
So the head coach is an administrator and doesn’t teach classes. That makes sense. What about the other football coaches? Don’t they teach classes?
Why don’t you research it and get back to us?
Can (or will) district leadership release the numbers of new hires that are also coaches?
Wow, you people need a hobby.
Yes, please reveal the number of coaches hired who are also teaching core academic classes. I’ve heard the emphasis is on hiring coaches instead of teachers who specialize in core academics.
Isn’t that your job? Just look on the WHS website.
To Great: I don’t find any links on the WHS website that provides information about new hires and what positions they hold. Could you share with the community?
People—the high school website has EVERY teacher listed in the directory. The sports website has the names of EVERY coach. Do a little research that involves clicking back and forth between two browsers. Probably won’t take yall as long as it did to get on here and complain about nonsense.
The WHS website does not include dates of hire. Reading the posts on this blog, it seems the question on the table is,”How many new hires are also coaches?’ Another question that remains unanswered by the school administration: Is there a requirement for new teacher applicants to also coach? That appears to be the trend.