The Janesville School District has its first districtwide athletic director in more than a dozen years.
The school board unanimously approved a one-year, $117,000 contract for Jim McClowry, the current associate principal and athletics and activities director for Appleton West High School, with little discussion and board member Elizabeth Paull absent from Tuesday’s meeting. McClowry will start the role July 1.
A districtwide athletic director will complement the district’s athletic directors at Parker and Craig high schools and Franklin and Edison middle schools. All school-level directors, who each have teaching responsibilities at their respective sites, previously reported to Assistant Superintendent of Administrative and Human Resources Scott Garner. Garner was the de facto athletic director at the district level.
During a March 2021 school board meeting where the board first approved reinstating a central athletic director, Garner told members the position would create another layer of leadership.
“We need someone ... that would be able to have an expertise, first of all, in athletic administration,” Garner explained. “Someone who can do the budgeting, facilities projections, supervising the athletic directors ... and working with the bigger district-type issues.”
The board had approved the hire of the districtwide athletic director for the 2021-22 school year, but no one was hired until now because the district did not find a suitable candidate in its search, Garner told The 69.
Most board members agreed in March 2021 that a centralized athletic director would offset the original proposed $85,000 salary through revenue brought into the district through fundraising that site-based directors do not have time for.
McClowry was selected out of a group of 36 applicants. He has a bachelor’s degree from Cornell (Iowa) College, and a master’s degree in athletic administration from Ball State University, according to a district news release.
In addition to coaching baseball and softball, McClowry has been a math and science teacher and a high school athletic director for five school districts around the state. He is also an instructor for the Wisconsin Leadership Training Institute, where he trains athletic personnel on legal issues concerning sports. He also is a past president of the Wisconsin Athletic Directors Association.
District Superintendent Steve Pophal said in the news release that McClowry has an “impeccable record” of athletic leadership throughout the state.
“He is dedicated to educational-based athletics, and he has a proven record of success with coaching development, fundraising, and facility planning and management,” Pophal said in the release. “He will provide the Janesville community with a path to the future for our student-athletes.”
The district had a central athletic director for years until 2009, when budget concerns prompted the board to cut the then-$113,000 salaried position, and had considered reintroducing the role for nearly a year before approving it.
“An effective leader in this position not only helps athletics in schools and supports the ADs, they also raise revenue for the district and pay for their own position over time,” then-board president Steve Huth said during the March 2021 board meeting.
