DHS in search of a new Athletic Director

Tom Crumpacker, the former AD at Dixon High School, addressed our School Board on Thursday, June 4^th where he asked them to reconsider the reinstatement of numerous stipends (not just athletic) in grades K-12.  These included 27 Elementary-level stipends, 2 Intermediate-Level stipends, and 7 High School-level stipends in addition to DHS/CAJ sports-related stipends, each of which he feels has a direct or indirect impact on ALL students in the District.  The following morning he was asked to cross his association’s line by working for free (similar to crossing a picket line); actions he felt would undermine the spirit of the contract that Dixon Teachers Association (DTA) worked to achieve in previous years.  Although he neither quit nor resigned, Tom was removed as Athletic Director at DHS and has been reassigned to the classroom full time.  Details of his presentation and subsequent removal are available on DixonRams.com and DixonBoosterClub.org.

Controversy arose following the May 21^st School Board meeting where sports were reinstated in the Third Interim report with certain provisions.  Originally scheduled as a “Workshop” with no action items, it was later changed to a “Meeting” without notifying the public and therefore caught the entire DUSD sporting world by surprise.  Despite generating an estimated $530,000 in revenues (based on NOT losing 100 student-athletes in grades 7-12), the School Board abolished stipends.  At the following School Board meeting on June 4^th, Tom proposed reinstating approximately $178,000 of stipends ($110,000 of which are sports-related), still leaving a net gain to the school district of $350,000.   

There is an All-Sports Meeting scheduled for tonight at 7:00pm in the Multi-Purpose Room (MPR) to discuss several DHS and CAJ sports-related activities.  All student-athletes, parents and coaches are encouraged to attend.

Crumpacker Removed as Athletic Director

Brianna Boyd

Editor

             In what he describes as a “most difficult” decision, Tom Crumpacker has removed himself as Dixon High School’s athletic director because he believes working for free would go against the values of the Dixon Teachers Association.

            Crumpacker, like every other coach at CA Jacobs Middle School and Dixon High School, will lose stipends next year due to cuts made in February by Dixon Unified School District’s board of trustees.

            Up until last month, district sports was to be eliminated in the fall, along with stipends. However, the board of trustees voted May 21 to fund athletics, but not coaching stipends. Crumpacker said that once that decision was made, he ethically had no other choice but to remove himself from his director and coaching positions.

            “It’s one of the most difficult decisions I have had to make in my life,” said Crumpacker, who has served Dixon High School for 22 years as a teacher, athletic director, cross country coach, track and field coach and football coach.  “I had to do it because of ethics. Integrity is very important to me and I had to do what was right.”

            Crumpacker believes that if he were to continue his coaching and director duties, he would go against the Dixon Teachers Association and the group’s prior negotiations with the district.

            He said that crossing that line would go against all the hard work and sacrifice that has been made by association members.

            “In good conscious, I cannot do that,” he explained. “I would have set a precedent for people to lose money now and later on. I can’t do that, ethically or financially.”

            His hours as athletic director were already reduced this year, from two periods of preparation a day to one. However, while his hours of pay were reduced, his work hours continued to increase. He estimates he worked, on average, an additional 30 hours a week.   Being an athletic director, he explained in a letter sent out earlier this week to high school athletes and coaches, is “like juggling balls while wearing roller skates and skating on top of marbles. (It’s) a glorified administrative position without the administrative income”.

            “It’s been my life and I have enjoyed it,” he said. “You take pride in it. But there comes a time when enough is enough.”

            He would have lost $9,000 if he continued in his position next year. He knows of other people who will lose more than $10,000.

            “The district is expecting you to work for free and I can’t do that,” Crumpacker said.

            “Each individual has to make their own decision about what they want to do,” he added. “Each decision is up to them and my hope is that they will look at is professionally, as I have done. I know there will be those who will cross the line. Some of them already have.”