Jon Kitna getting paid $95K by Texas high school, some parents upset

We all know by now that high school football in Texas is a different animal than elsewhere in the Lower 48.

This is a state that birthed a $60 million football stadium at a suburban Dallas high school, after all — a facility that had to be shut down for major structural repairs shortly after opening.

Jon Kitna (Getty Images)


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Beyond multi-million-dollar athletics facilities, the arms race in Texas high school football extends to big-name coaches, too. Waxahachie High landed a big one earlier this year, luring longtime NFL quarterback Jon Kitna away from his alma mater, Tacoma Lincoln High School, in January.

“The dream would be to stay here, the comfortable thing would have been to stay here, the ideal thing would have been to stay here," Kitna told the Tacoma News Tribune when he left. "But where God is leading me, I have to follow, and I’ve always said that.”

Kitna finished his playing career with the Cowboys, who play their home games about 35 miles from Waxahachie, so he was somewhat familiar with the turf. But the paycheck Waxachachie was offering Kitna and four assistant coaches he brought with him from Washington certainly didn't hurt. And it's that money — and the hiring process that led to it — that has some in his new home up in arms.

Kitna will make $95,000 a year for a position initially advertised as paying under $70,000, WFAA reports. Some of his assistants will be paid $70,000, while the maximum salary for Waxahachie teachers with no experience is $44,500. Three of the four assistants have never taught before; one has served as a corrections officer, with no coaching experience.

Beyond that, emails show district superintendent Jeremy Glenn told some of the new coaches to have their wives apply for jobs within the Waxahachie athletic department, and Kitna's father was hired to a newly created position that pays $36,000 annually.

"It's a slap in the face of every other coach, every other teacher and secretary and janitor in this school district," Waxahachie parent Mark Martin told WFAA. "And these men — through no fault of their own, through their negotiating power of Jon Kitna — have negotiated salaries that double, triple the amount of most of the employees of WISD, and it doesn't seem right to me."

In addition to seeing to the "non-negotiables and desires" of his assistant coaches, as Kitna put it in one email to Glenn, he also required the district to change its equipment deal to Nike products.
Glenn declined to be interviewed by WFAA, instead releasing a statement that read: "Waxahachie ISD followed Board Policy and Standard Operating Procedures with the hiring of Jon Kitna and his staff. We are proud to have added a nationally recognized group of coaches to work with our students and serve in our community."

According to Spotrac, Kitna was paid more than $32 million during his NFL career.

http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl/story/2015-05-19/jon-kitna-being-paid-95k-coach-high-school-football-texas-teachers-salaries

Waxahachie had Football in May toni9ght with the Of fence against Defense scrimmage. Awesome night of or day of tail gating and celebrating the upcoming season and the look at the changes...FINALLY!!!!

Couple little videos on my Facebook page.... ;)

Can not show the game so, you have to come to the games... ;)