Perham-Dent Public School District shuffles, restructures positions to reduce costs

PERHAM — To reduce expenditures, the Perham-Dent Public School District has shuffled staff and restructured positions. At the school board's most recent meeting on Thursday, March 21, the board did not renew two probationary teaching contracts and approved several changes to current positions.

Of the two probationary contracts, a sixth grade language arts position was not renewed in order to make room for a tenured elementary teacher position. The full-time choir/music instructor contract was not renewed with the current instructor, but Perham-Dent Public School Superintendent Mitch Anderson said the district intends to fill that position again.

Six positions in the district are changing and being restructured, with the goal of saving $1 million and reducing the district's deficit spending. Anderson outlined those positions and the associated changes:

A districtwide social worker: This position was funded via COVID-19 dollars for the last three years, but that funding has since ended. The employee currently in this position will fill in for one year as the Prairie Wind Middle School counselor when the current counselor goes on leave for the 2024-25 school year.

“The position of the social worker is eliminated, just because we don’t have the funding for it any longer, and we still have a lot of support in all of our buildings with mental health practitioners and professionals, other social workers and counselors,” Anderson said. “It’s just a reality that it’s a position that’s not sustainable, and that’s why it was eliminated.”

A part-time Perham High School science position: This position, which was added last year, will be absorbed internally, rather than being a stand-alone position.

“It’s (this position) is really .33 FTE (full-time equivalent) so we’re reducing some time, and we’re actually trying to create a mid-level ALC or hybrid learning model where we might need some support, and that person would get that time back,” Anderson said.

Because enrollment remains steady at the high school, Anderson said the district could not justify the position at this moment in time.

A Prairie Wind Middle School/PHS social studies position: A sixth grade social studies teacher is resigning at the end of the year, allowing the district to move teachers into new positions. Ida Rogers-Ferguson is being reassigned to sixth grade social studies and De Kovash will be teaching full-time seventh grade geography. Rogers-Ferguson currently splits time teaching social studies in the middle school and high school. Kovash currently teaches part-time social studies and part-time digital art.

A PWS digital art position: This position will be absorbed from within. The change is tied to Kovash becoming a full-time geography teacher. “We can absorb this from within and provide some other types of art through our staff,” Anderson said.

A Heart of the Lakes Elementary Media Center position: This position has been combined with the STEM/science position. The full-time licensed teacher currently in this position, Teresa Anderson, will be replaced with a paraprofessional, as is done at Prarie Wind Middle School and Perham High School.

A HOTL STEM position: This position has been combined with the science/media position. Teresa Anderson will likely be teaching the combined STEM/Media class. The current STEM teacher, Jenna Rosemore, will return to the regular education classroom.

“Our focus for the last two months, our administration team, has been trying to use attrition as much as possible,” Anderson said. “So if we know someone is retiring, or they’re leaving us at the end of the year, how can we fill those positions from within and not hire the replacement? That’s a win-win. We are able to get our savings and we don’t have to let somebody go.”

These changes come as the district is looking to reduce spending by $1 million. The district is currently operating in a deficit that was brought on, in part, by the drying up of COVID-19 relief dollars. Anderson said a number of the positions were made possible by those relief dollars.

“As much as we try not to put those dollars into positions, because we knew the money was eventually going to dry up, and we wouldn’t be able to sustain, in education, we use people to provide our service,” Anderson said. “We need teachers, we need paras, we need support staff.”

Prior to last Thursday's board action, the district had already taken other cost-saving measures, such as pushing back technology and uniform purchases at least one year, limiting travel, reducing supply and materials expenses, and removing a bus route, to name a few measures. Those measures should add $550,000 back to the budget, with the restructuring of positions covering the remaining $450,000 to get the district up to $1 million in cost reductions.

“We’re going to have many surprises between now and the end of May, and even over the summer,” Anderson said. “We’re going to have some staff that decide not to return next year or take a job somewhere else, and then each of those creates an opportunity for us to possibly use some more attrition.”

Also discussed at the school board meeting:

• The board approved the 2024-25 school year calendar. The first day of school will be Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. Graduation day will be Friday, May 23, 2025. The district will have five "early-out" days throughout the school year to provide required READ Act and Multi-Tiered System of Supports training for educators. Students will be released at 12:45 p.m.
• Scott Bjerke, former PWMS principal and current HOTL dean of students, is resigning from his position with the district. Several in attendance thanked him for his years working in education.
• Superintendent Mitch Anderson mentioned that enrollment in the 2023-24 school year has dropped more than in previous years. As of March 13, they are down 48 students compared to the first day of school. A majority of the students no longer enrolled are from the high school, so Anderson asked PHS Principal Ehren Zimmerman to identify the reasons for the losses. If it is due to virtual learning opportunities, the district hopes to create similar learning options in order to keep those students enrolled.
• The board approved an increase to the Kids Adventure Preschool tuition for the first time since the 2020-21 school year. Previously, the annual rate for four full days was $3,708. In the 2024-25 school year, it will now be $4,140.
• The board also approved an increase to driver's education tuition for the first time in over five years. Combined behind-the-wheel and classroom instruction will raise from $275 to $325. The district surveyed area school rates to keep their fees in the middle of the road compared to surrounding districts.

The next school board meeting is April 10 at 4 p.m. in the Perham High School Media Center.