The Crookston School Board on Monday approved a $1.5 million budget reduction target for the 2010-11 school year, two days before the board's Finance Committee gathers to see an initial list of positions and programs in line to be cut, or reduced.
Superintendent Wayne Gilman and the administrative team have compiled the list that will be discussed at 7 a.m. Wednesday in room D108 at the high school, but the superintendent said Monday that the list will not include specific names of people in line to lose their jobs. It will only include programs and positions, he said.
That's in large part because terminating the contracts of probationary teachers or placing tenured teachers on unrequested leave is not a cut-and-dried process. Teachers with more seniority who possess the appropriate license can, if their job is eliminated, "bump" teachers with less seniority from their jobs. So attaching names to positions at this juncture isn't possible.
One retires, one doesn't
The board accepted, with regrets, the retirement letter from Youth Services Director Mary Ann Odland, who's been in the position since 1990. In her letter, she stated that she only intended, initially, to remain on the job until 1994, when her son graduated. But working with the kids on the Leo Club and in other activities was so rewarding, Odland wrote, that she stayed on much longer than she originally planned.
"Do we have to accept this?" board member Frank Fee asked, half-jokingly. "I don't know of anyone else who's touched more lives of students than her."
Odland's position is funded by Community Education dollars, Gilman said, and will be filled. Interest is already being expressed by some potential successors to Odland, he added.
"She knows there's an interest in the position and I think she's pleased with the candidates," Gilman said. "I think the position will carry on just fine."
The other retirement on Monday's agenda, of elementary teacher Beth McDougall, was removed from the agenda. After the meeting, Gilman said he wasn't entirely sure why McDougall, who's taught for 34 years in Crookston, asked that her resignation/retirement request be pulled. But he said it's possible that she's going to wait to see if, similar to last year's budget reduction process, the board offers eligible teachers an incentive to retire. Last year, it was $10,000 for their health savings account. If there was any controversy, it was because teachers who announced their retirement before the incentive was approved did not, after much discussion among board members, have the incentive extended to them.
No incentive this year is imminent, although at their working session last week, board members discussed the possibility of coming up with something again this year.
McDougall was out of town today and unavailable for comment.
