I love the "it takes a village" thinking.

My kids are no longer in the school system and I have not coached for many years, but from one villager to another - thank you.

We are not involved with Paly's sports programs - but I am astonished at reading about the little/no pay for these coaches of typically strong successful sports programs! I thought each family had to pay a fee ($150?) for each sport - where does this money go if not to pay the coach? Many thanks to the generous parents who are providing these new payments, but what about the school and the district - they have no real system in place after umpteen years for compensating coaches??

Volunteers usually are not paid and they put in similar amounts of time.
Sports is more important than other activities? Not to me.

[Post removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]

These are people who are enormously generous to support BOTH schools in a UNIFIED school district and people are not thanking and celebrating. Go figure sounds like the biggest loser going.

"I thought each family had to pay a fee ($150?) for each sport - where does this money go if not to pay the coach?"

Transportation costs, equipment, uniforms, officials, etc. Pay for coaches is the only part of the athletic program's costs that the district still pays. All the rest comes from the sports fees.

What a nice gesture by the Fords. On top of the very low pay and high stress, coaches at public schools are also now required to be CPR and first aid certified on their own time. They also have to attend coaching certification classes. My certification was on my own time and paid for out of my own pocket.

I hope the Ford family gift helps Paly and Gunn keep qualified coaches.

Thank you to the Ford family. I know some of the coaches at PALY were volunteering their time to help out and they also helped kids that were NOT able to pay for football summer camps.