By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph school officials aren’t just looking at reducing the number of buildings in the district, they are looking to reduce staff.
St. Joseph School District Human Resources Director, Mark Korell, says the district’s staff is its most valuable commodity.
“We want to ensure that they’re taken care of,” Korell tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “Again, I know we can say it over and over, there’s still going to be fear, but we want to, once we have a general idea of which direction that we are going to go, we want to meet with our staff members face-to-face.”
A drop in enrollment has led to a fall in funding. The St. Joseph Board of Education has asked the staff to review two possible resizing options, which would reduce the number of St. Joseph public high schools from three to two. Once the board decides, the district then will move to reduce its staff through attrition.
Korell says his office will be meeting with teachers, primarily to listen.
“When it comes to a possible transfer due to reorganization, we want to hear their voice, not let them sit there and wait on where they’re going to be reassigned,” Korell says. “We want them to, at least, possibly have a choice. It might not be ideal for everybody, but just kind of listen to their concerns.”
St. Joseph School Superintendent, Ashly McGinnis, says the drop in enrollment has had an impact on the district’s finances. McGinnis says the district must reduce its staff, because personnel make up 75% of the budget. She says by the time the district lure of its current financial reality, it already had issued contracts to teachers and staff.
“Contracts were out, letters of intent were out and so we have to look strategically now at our budget and then, hopefully through attrition, get there in the next two years to where we need to be,” McGinnis tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post.
The St. Joseph School District pupil count has dropped below 10,000 for the first time in modern history.
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