The cost of teachers went up officially last week and now the cost of sports officials is going up.

The Clinton Board of Education last week took action to increase the pay for athletic officials. Superintendent Curt Nettles indicates they took a look at how their rates compared to area schools and felt they were pretty far behind in some sports.

According to Nettles, the primary varsity sports all got raises. He indicates there are some sports where the officials may officiate both JV and varsity games. They also increased pay for the junior high school officials.

While the district was more in line for officials pay in a lot of sports, Nettles indicates there is an officials shortage and they felt they needed to be competitive with surrounding districts to get good officials to their events.

Nettles says there are some sports where Athletic Director Matt Keoppel has to find all the officials for certain sports, there are others that are assigned and there are others he works with someone who may facilitate area officials to certain events.