Board Votes Pay Raise for City Section Coaches

The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education voted Monday to increase stipends for City Section coaches by 30%, giving coaches their first pay increase in nearly a decade.

Nearly 100 coaches from the District’s 49 high schools attended the open meeting at which the board recommended by a 6-1 vote to implement a proposal by member David Tokofsky after hearing impassioned speeches from several coaches, including Crenshaw High boys’ basketball Coach Willie West and Dorsey football and girls’ track Coach Paul Knox.

Stipends for varsity coaches currently range from $1,202-1,785, depending on the sport. Coaches in some districts receive almost twice the amount, and City coaches have not had a pay increase since 1989. Barring any formal complaints, coaches will be paid about the median of all Los Angeles County school district coaches.

“It really was the right thing to do,” Tokofsky, a former soccer coach at Marshall, said. “It’s about more than just the pay raise, it’s about respect.”

Coaches were mulling several options if the motion failed.

“The words ‘job action’ had been thrown around, but we were really hoping it wasn’t going to come to that,” Van Nuys Birmingham football Coach Dave Lertzman said. “None of us wanted to do that.”