Brevard County aims to have Florida's highest paid coaches by June, hopes other counties follow

Brevard County public school coaches are on the verge of receiving a major pay increase and county officials hope it will provide a road map for other counties to increase supplements for coaches.

“Right now, nothing is more important than making sure coaches get paid for the work they put in,” said Dr. Andrew Ramjit, Assistant Director of Student Activities for Brevard Public Schools. “Coaches are leaving Florida mainly because they’re not being compensated. Inflation is rising. You see the price of everything going up but coaching stipends are staying the same, so they are essentially coaching for less.”

Three successful high school football coaches announced last week they were leaving Florida to take higher-paying jobs in Georgia and South Carolina. Aaron Sheppard, who is leaving Ocoee to become a defensive coordinator in Georgia, said his stipend “will be more than double” in his new job despite having less responsibility.

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“It’s a sad day when someone leaves the place they are,” said Matt Susin, a member of the Brevard County School Board. “They’re moving their entire family because we can’t financially do what someone else can. It's embarrassing. It’s not fair to the family. It’s for a better opportunity and sometimes a coach needs a fresh idea, but still.

“We have an opportunity to do something special here.”

Ramjit said the plan is to increase coaching stipends in all sports by 40 percent — hopefully by the end of June.

Pay for coaches at public schools varies by county. In Brevard County, a head football coach with less than six years of experience receives a $3,742 stipend. That number jumps to $4,677 for a head coach with more than six or more years of experience. Ramjit said if a head coach with less than six years of experience works 2,080 hours a year, they make just $1.80 per hour.

A 40 percent increase would mean a coach with less than six years of experience would get a $5,239 stipend and a coach with six or more years of experience would get $6,547.

Coaches in the county have been hearing rumors about a pay increase for a few months.

“It just shows you how much they care about what they do as coaches,” said Cocoa football coach Ryan Schneider, who led the Tigers to the Class 2S championship in December. “They realize the amount of time and effort we put it. It shows you that they have our back.”

The extra funds are coming from the county’s millage increase, as property owners in Brevard voted in November to pay $1 more per $1,000 of assessed property value.

Susin and Ramjit said the total amount from the millage tax will be approximately $50 million, with a portion of that earmarked for supplements — both for athletic coaches and non-sport club sponsors. In addition, football coaches will receive an additional supplement for coaching spring football.

“The millage tax opened up a door to provide more money for the supplements,” Ramjit said. “Before that, I was talking to whatever decision makers there were and basically pulling their arms to say, ‘Coaches are struggling here.’”

Having the additional supplement approved by June will be important because it will help with recruiting better coaches for the 2023-24 school year, Susin said. Brevard County has just 14 percent of its 904 high school and middle school coaches in the classroom, Ramjit said. He’s hoping the additional funds will help alleviate that issue.

“Not having coaches on campus leads to discipline problems, attendance problems, students don’t have someone on campus they can talk to,” Ramjit said. “One of main pushes with this is to get more teachers who are coaches.”

Brevard County’s stipend increase could set an important example for other counties in the state. Susin called the plan “a model for many school districts to follow if they so choose.”

“It’s my expectation that within the next two years, the majority of school districts will be able to replicate it,” Ramjit said. “Brevard County is the 10th-largest school district in the state. There’s no reason why the 10th largest school district should be paying their coaches more than the two largest, which are Broward and Dade. They should be leading this charge — especially Dade County, which produces more Division I athletes than anyone else.”