Trainer’s departure not related to district budget cuts approved by school board
By Holly Dillemuth, Ashland.news
Ashland High School athletic trainer Eric Lang, who has been employed by Asante for the past 18 months but works at the high school, has been laid off, according to a newsletter distributed by Ashland School District to students and families on Friday.
Superintendent Samuel Bogdanove confirmed the layoff of Lang is not tied to the school district’s recent actions to cut $1.3 million from the school district’s budget. District officials were caught “by surprise” at hearing about Lang being laid off, as Asante has partnered with Ashland School District to provide the use of an athletic trainer for Ashland schools at no cost to the district for “many, many years,” Bogdanove told Ashland.news on Friday via phone.
“Eric has been doing a wonderful job working with student athletes over the last year and a half,” said Principal Ben Bell, in the newsletter to Ashland High students and families. “We deeply appreciate the many years of partnership that we have had with Asante in providing our Athletic Trainer position at no cost to the school. We value having an athletic trainer and
and view the position as an essential component for the health and safety of our athletics.”
Bogdanove said more conversations will happen between the district and the healthcare organization about how to move forward.
“The trainer is really a gift from Asante that has been there for many, many years,” Bogdanove said. “We’re in conversation with Asante to understand what happened and what we can potentially do to make sure that we’ve got appropriate services for our athletes.”
The district has also had nursing services by Asante at a reduced cost. Information was not immediately available as to whether those will also be affected.
Asante recently laid off 3% of its employees, as reported by the Rogue Valley Times on Feb. 9.
Bogdanove expressed a commitment to figure out a way to continue to provide an athletic trainer for athletes.
“We have to have a trainer or someone with a little bit of medical experience to be able to support games, so we’re currently working to sort out how we can do that and maintain all of those pieces,” Bogdanove said. “I think that’s something that we’ll find a way to resolve, but it is challenging to come in with not much, really not any notice.”
“I know that some of our athletes and our teams are concerned about what the impact might be,” he added. “We are absolutely committed to our athletic and sports programs, from the (school) board on down. We’ll figure out a way to get this right.”
Ashland High School Vice Principal Francisco Lopez Atanes, who has experience coaching three sports, will officially take over the position of athletic director this fall along with his vice principal duties.
Separate from Lang’s layoff, the school district recently announced the layoff of Patrick Grady, who has served as athletic director since 2021. The district reduced the fulltime principal position at TRAILS Outdoor School to .6-time and will eliminate between 13 and 24 classified positions within the district. Those reductions are being made because of the end of federal ESSER funds coming to the district and reduction in enrollment of 300 students, equating to approximately $3 million.
If you are an Ashland School District athlete, coach or parent, Ashland.news would like to hear from you about your thoughts and comments on this layoff. Please reach out to Ashland.news reporter Holly Dillemuth at hollyd@ashland.news if you would like to share your comments for a followup story.
