District administrators and staff presented the stipend committee’s annual recommendations for activity and athletics stipends for the 2025–26 school year. The committee, which includes equal representation from administration and faculty, used an established matrix to review requests and season length when recommending stipend levels.

Key recommendations included: adding a 0.5 level 3 segment for boys volleyball; a level 4 stipend for girls badminton and for boys and girls tennis; additional stipends for girls flag football in response to rising participation; and raising boys and girls cross‑country stipends (assistants from level 4 to level 3; head coaches from level 3 to level 2) to address season length inequities. For activities, the committee proposed a half level 6 segment for a newly introduced club, Letters of Love, and recommended eliminating the spirit council and two stipends for a low‑participation program. The net financial impact of the full set of recommendations was presented as an increase of $35,327.03, bringing the activities stipend budget closer to adequacy (staff said current coverage is about 90 percent).

Board members asked clarifying questions about baseline budget numbers and equity in participation. One board member noted the increase amounts to roughly 1 percent of the listed activities budget (staff cited a referenced figure of $2,767,945.92 for related EBS funding lines). Members asked for follow‑up on a reported drop in Black student participation in activities post‑pandemic (from roughly 73 percent pre‑pandemic to 53 percent in the most recent year); administrators said they were examining activity‑by‑activity trends and potential outreach or partnership solutions with community organizations.

The committee recommended the stipend changes to the full board; staff said the item will be presented for a formal vote at the regular board meeting in April.

Ending: Administrators indicated the stipend recommendations are annual and procedural; the board will receive the formal resolution and vote at its regular meeting, where the reported $35,327.03 net increase will be part of the 2025–26 budgeting process.