Board cuts 4.5 teaching positions
Declining enrollment mostly to blame
Posted: 4/6/04
By David Heiller
Argus News Editor
The Caledonia School Board made budget reductions worth about $209,000 at its regular meeting on March 29.
The 2-1/2-hour-long meeting contained a lot of testimony from teachers who asked the board to cut two and not three positions at the elementary school.
The board heeded their request and ended up cutting two positions at the elementary school.
Here are the positions that will be eliminated:
ï Two K-5 teaching positions; no individuals will lose their job, because of the retirement of Pam Heuslein and the fact that Angela Blair is expected to stay on medical leave.
ï One part-time physical education teacher; Cori Ronnenberg will lose her job at the middle/high school. She works there .45 time now.
ï One K-12 licensed media position; no one will lose their job, because of the retirement of Ken Wright. Wright is a .4 English teacher, and those teaching duties will be done by a new teacher that the district will hire.
ï One industrial technology teacher; no individual has been identified yet as losing his/her job for this. There are presently three teachers in the area of industrial technology/agriculture. This will now be reduced to two.
The need for the cuts stem mostly from declining enrollment. K-12 enrollment is 924 this year. It is projected to fall to 879 next year, 845 in 2005-06, 795 in 2006-07, 762 in 2007-08, and 730 in 2008-09.
Superintendent Jim Tool said the school is also losing about $10,000 worth of nursing services that had been paid for by the Houston County Collaborative.
Tool added that there is a need for a web-based computer service called A Plus. It will cost $8,000 to $12,000, depending on the number of students involved. It offers internet instruction in basic areas, and would be used by students who didnít understand the lessons the first time around. He hoped this would also retain some of the students who might otherwise attend the alternative school in Hokah called Bluff Country Area Learning Center.
Much debate
There was a lot of discussion about the recommendation to cut three positions at the elementary school. Board member Charlie Wray said it might be better to make what he called a tough decision now. ìIf we undershoot our revenue, weíre going to be in a worse position next year.î
But several teachers spoke about the difficulties that cutting three teachers at the elementary would bring. Nancy Mullins said there is a wide range of needs at the school, and cutting a teacher would bring class sizes up to 29. Keeping the class size at 20 would be appreciated, she said.
Another argument against cutting a third position centered on ìbumping rightsî in which less senior teachers get cut first. That process would have had current kindergarten teacher Jan Klug teaching special education, something she is certified to do, even though she hasnít taught special education for 24 years.
Elementary principal Connie Hesse suggested that the board cut two positions for 2004-05 and make another one the following year, if declining enrollment dictates the need.
Board members ultimately made that decision on a 4-0 vote. Mary Frank and Suzanne Roesler were absent.
Eliminating the middle/high school media position did not sit well with present elementary school media specialist Sherri White and former media specialist Pam Griffith.
ìCovering it is one thing, running it is a different thing,î Griffith said, referring to having non-media personnel in charge of the library.
White said one of her goals is to collaborate with teachers, and that she would not be able to do that effectively if she had to take on the middle/high school media work.
She was also disappointed that the board only had a few days to make this decision. The deadline to make the cuts was April 1. She had hoped to give the board a tour of the media center.
Board member Chuck Schulte agreed with that. He said he felt like his back was to the wall, and there was no time to think about the proposals. He said he opposed the media position cut, but the district also could not go back into statutory operating debt. He hoped that the board could re-adopt the position.
Schulte had two other suggestions. He said the board should look at the budget to see if other costs could be trimmed, and he felt the district couldnít maintain and sustain four administrators. With enrollment dropping, administration should be cut too, he said.
Board member Barb Hurley encouraged people to contact their legislators to get school funding increased.
Five-day kindergarten
In other business, the board voted to have kindergarten five days a week next year. It had been considering going to a three day a week kindergarten to save money. It has had a five-day program for the past two years.
There was public testimony in favor of five day kindergarten by two teachers and a parent.
Carol Hines, a kindergarten teacher from Spring Grove Elementary School, said that five day kindergarten had brought a relaxed and consistent environment in her classroom. ìMost of mine are reading at the end of kindergarten,î she said.
Parent Michelle Warner said her daughter had made improvements in five-day kindergarten, and recommended that the board adopt it. They voted 4-0 to do so.
Other personnel business
ïThe board accepted the resignations of teachers Pam Heuslein and Kenneth Wright, who are retiring with 34 and 32 years of service respectively.
ï It accepted the resignation of kitchen helper Lois Johnson, and extended the long-term substitute teaching contract for Laurel Rusert
ï It approved a contract for technology coordinator John Lukach for $45,000 for 2004-05 and $47,000 for 2005-06. The motion passed unanimously, although Barb Hurley opposed part of his contract that paid for college credits.
Jim Tool said that part of the contract might not be appropriate with other groups. There will never be total uniformity in contracts, he said.
ìIt may be a new contract, but itís the same farm,î Naomi Fruechte said.
ìIt is the same farm, but itís always sprouting up new weeds,î Dave Klinski responded.
Calendar approved
The board approved the 2004-05 school calendar, which has two days of vacation at Easter as opposed to one that the board had wanted that had six days of vacation at Easter. The end of the school year is May 27, 2005, in the new calendar, as opposed to June 3 in the former one.
©The Argus
314 West Lincoln St.
P.O. Box 227
Caledonia, MN 55921-0227
507/724-3475
E-Mail: editor.argus@ecm-inc.com