Two Colby coaches to share athletic director duties

Two Colby School District employees will be sharing the duties of athletic director this upcoming school year.

Eighth-grade teacher Bryon Graun, who coaches cross-country and track, will be splitting the job with middle school principal Jim Hagen, who also coaches football.

The split position was approved by the school board during a closed session at its June 21 monthly meeting.

Under the co-director system, Hagen will oversee football, swimming, and softball, while Graun will handle cross-country, volleyball, golf and track. The two of them will share supervision of the boys and girls basketball teams, with Hagen focusing on scheduling and officials and Graun overseeing the game workers.

For each sport they oversee, Graun or Hagen will be responsible for scheduling games, officials and workers; evaluating coaches; hiring and firing; code violations, and busing. They will also be expected to work with parents, run all-conference meetings, communicate with coaches and other ADs and provide weekly notifications to everyone involved.

Among other duties, Hagen will also be responsible for scheduling weight room supervision, booster club activities and building usage, and helping with field maintenance “at times.” Graun will be expected to attend the Wisconsin Athletic Director Association conference, and Hagen will represent the district at WIAA regional and annual meetings.

Clerical assistance will be provided for collecting yearly paperwork from students and parents, requesting transportation, handling data from physicals and updating the academic failure list.

Graun will receive a $7,000 stipend as co-AD, plus $3,000 for two semesters of overload assignments. Hagen will not receive any additional compensation.

The new arrangement comes after the Colby and Abbotsford school districts tried sharing a full-time athletic director during the 2020-2021 school year. The person who held that position, Jerry Smith, has since taken a position with another school district, and the shared services agreement between the two districts has been terminated.

Colby’s school board narrowly approved the shared AD position in March of 2020, paving the way for Smith to be hired in time for the start of the fall 2020 semester. The vote was 4-3 at time, with several board members expressing concerns about the costs of a shared AD relative to the benefits.

Smith was an employee of the Colby School District, with Abby reimbursing the district for half the wages and benefi ts. Colby paid about $37,000 toward Smith’s compensation in 2020-2021.

Hagen had previously served as Colby’s AD for many years by himself before the two districts experimented with the shared position.

Three teachers have been granted unscheduled raises in order to match job offers from other school districts. The board was informed of the raises during a closed session discussion.

The teachers were:

_ English teacher Reggie Kellnhofer was given a $1,552 raise, from $38,648 to $40,200, in order to match an offer from the Medford Area School District.

_ Kindergarten teacher Kassidy Gustafson was given a $2,313 raise, from $47,885 to $50,198, to match an offer from the Gilman School District.

_ Special education teacher Laura Kneifl was granted a $3,542 raise, from $40,476 to $44,000, to match an offer from the Loyal School District. She also serves as the varsity softball coach and JV girls basketball coach.

Other business

_ Kolden told the board that the district will no longer be offering the Odyessy program next school year for students who want to attend classes online. The software was introduced during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic for students who were quarantined at home or chose not to come to school.

Students who want to attend classes online will have to enroll in the Rural Virtual Academy next year, as they have in the past, Kolden said.

_ Kolden also told the board that the rules for using school facilities have reverted to pre-COVID norms. This means no more restrictions on the numbers of coaches and fans, along with the reopening of concession stands.

_ The board accepted the resignations of special education teacher Nicole Schalow, elementary music teacher Brittney Yadon, and Spanish teacher Alexandria Sacia.

_ The board approved the hiring of Traci Fuehrer as early childhood special education teacher, and Dillon Novak as a middle school cross-country coach. Peg Christopherson, a special education aide, was transferred from high school/ middle school to elementary/middle.

_ The board approved the first reading of a change to the time limit for public speakers at board members, moving it back from five to three minutes.

_ The board approved a series of second readings for policy changes involving the wage schedules for hourly staff, summer school and overload assignments.

_ The board discussed the closing and sale price of the district-owned house at 300 W. Adams St., but no action was taken in open session. The house was previously utilized for special education programming, but it has not been used in several years.

Bryon Graun