REGIONAL- With the new school year fast approaching, ISD 2142 School Board members reviewed projected class sizes at the district’s five schools on Tuesday. They also filled vacant teaching positions, reviewed possible changes to two policies, and considered a number of other items.
Director of Teaching and Learning Kristi Berlin shared two charts with the board related to elementary class configurations for the new school year. As board member Dan Manick pointed out, the district has always taken pride in its commitment to smaller class sizes to facilitate learning, and the first chart demonstrated that for the upcoming year that will continue to be the case for the most part.
Average K-6 class sizes at all five district schools come in at 19.5 or less, well below the statewide average reported by the National Center for Education Statistics.
However, the district will need to get creative to deal with the sixth-grade class at Cherry, the fifth-grade class at North Woods, and the sixth-grade class at South Ridge, which have class sizes ranging from 27-30. They’ll do that through a mix of combining classes and offering “departmentalized” classes by topic areas that the students will rotate through, thereby effectively reducing the overall group size and teaching load.
“What they have at South Ridge is one teacher who will be doing all language arts, one will be doing all the math, and one will do social studies and science. It will be similar at North Woods. They were already departmentalized,” Berlin said. “It’ll look a bit different.”
Berlin’s second chart illustrated the impact of hiring three additional teachers to accommodate the larger classes and bring the numbers in line with the other elementary classrooms. That scenario would cost the district an estimated $270,000, Berlin said.
“The only problem is, how do we pay for it? We’ve been pretty clear that we have to cut costs, particularly when we’re talking about teacher negotiations,” said district finance director Kim Johnson. “Pretty much the only place you can cut costs is in staff, you can’t cut very much anywhere else and make any kind of impact. So, we don’t have a lot of options.”
Superintendent Reggie Engebritson said that she wanted board members to have the numbers for the current year because “people are starting to question,” noting that an e-mail had been received earlier in the day about the situation.
“I wanted you to have these numbers so that you can see it’s not just at North Woods, it’s at Cherry and South Ridge also,” she said. “We’ve already reached out to those teachers and are trying to make adjustments.
Looking ahead with an eye toward improving the district’s financial position for the 2023-24 school year, Engebritson suggested that the board consider changing the deadline for open enrollment in the district as way to possibly increase enrollment.
“You have been using the Jan. 15 deadline for open enrollment, but given that our numbers aren’t back up to where they were and we’ve talked about trying to reduce costs, I’m wondering if the board would be open to extending the deadline to June 1 for next year. Then we can see if we can get some additional students. The principals are OK with that. It still allows us some time for planning before school starts in September.”
Board members reacted favorably to the suggestion, which will be placed on the agenda for action at the next board meeting.
Also on that agenda will be proposed revisions to the district’s drug-free workplace/schools policy, which needs to be updated to accommodate the new state law allowing the sale and use of THC-infused edibles and drinks. THC is the main psychoactive compound in marijuana, and such products are not covered by the current policy. They would be added to list of substances that are banned, unless specifically prescribed by a physician, and additional guidelines for use would be added. Engebritson said that she’s asking for an emergency one-year authorization of the policy so that it can be in place when school starts. The normal policy approval process requires readings at three consecutive meetings before a new policy can be enacted.
Engebritson also briefly reviewed proposed changes to the district’s internet/computer use policy, which would go through the normal approval process.
Staff meal prices will be going up this year, with breakfast costing $2.25 and lunch costing $4.95. Johnson said that some kind of increase was directed by the state Department of Education to help cover the escalating costs of the food program.
In action taken in a special business meeting, the board hired four special education teachers and a music teacher to be assigned at South Ridge and Cherry. Interviews are upcoming to fill a vacant social studies position at North Woods. The board also renewed a student branch partnership agreement with North Star Credit Union.