A request for new positions and changes in the responsibility of existing positions at Caliche School was again put on hold by the RE-1 Valley School Board at a regular meeting Monday, drawing frustration from administrators.
Caliche is requesting that the school go back to having two principals, one for PreK-6th grade and another for 7th-12th grade, and they would also like to have a 7-12th grade academic advisor and a K-6th SEL (social emotional learning) specialist/reading interventionist. Plus, librarian Hillary Hykin who also does elementary intervention and has requested a transition year next year, would be a half-time reading interventionist for K-8 and Sharon Schumacher, who currently teaches first grade, would become an early childhood interventionist, a position already in place and held by Jenny Smock.
The staffing requests were listed as part of the consent agenda for the board’s April 28 meeting, but no action was taken at the time due to nothing being presented and the matter was brought back last week at a May 16 meeting, but again no action was taken because the board said the proposal was not right for determination at that point.
At Monday’s meeting they reiterated why they are asking that proposals for new positions and changes in job duties go through them because they are trying to get the district back on track in following policy, specifically policy GCA.
During the public comments portion of the meeting, Schumacher shared that when she started 13 years ago the school had two principals, two years later the elementary principal retired and that position was not replaced and a few years after that the elementary reading interventionist retired and that position was not replaced. She said the way Principal Dave Eastin, who is resigning at the end of year, and Assistant Principal Jamie Johnstone split up duties this year, with Johnstone doing a lot of work in the elementary, has been wonderful and she urged the board to allow the school to have two principals again and an academic advisor.
“We’ve had those extra responsibilities put on us teachers and it was just kind of nice this year having an administrative presence in our elementary again,” Schumacher said.
Sarah Matthews, administrative assistant at the junior/senior high, also spoke out the positions.
“Over this past year we have struggled with many different things throughout the year, lack of staffing is one of those,” she said. “Having an administrator on both ends helps, along with just taking care of our students and seeing what our students need.”
Matthews pointed out that Caliche students were not taken care of very well in academic advising this year and having that position would take a load off of the principal on the 7-12th grade side, along with her job duties as well and would be an “added bonus” for students to help ensure they can be successful after graduating high school.
During his principal report, Eastin shared that he sent a proposal to the board Friday that was reviewed by the School Advisory Committee (SAC) and asked the school board to approve the academic advisor position and hire James Grinde to fill it.
“My frustration with that is working with Mr. (Ron) Marostica (Interim Superintendent), we basically just moved forward based on him saying ‘let’s go, let’s go,’ we wanted to go so we did,” Eastin said, explaining the school put together an interview committee, interviewed candidates and offered Grinde the position on April 18 and “since then I been getting the stop sign on this position and his wife and him are kind of in limbo and I feel horrible for them.”
He also addressed the principal positions and how the job was posted. Following a principal meeting around April 30 and discussion with Marostica, Eastin and Johnstone both understood that it was okay to post both principal positions.
“I understand know there’s been some issues with that, I’m not sure what they are, but I am concerned if it wasn’t in fact going to be that way that she didn’t have an opportunity to apply for that and interview for that,” he told the board, referring to Johnstone.
The job was in fact listed as K-12 principal in the heading, but in the fine print it stated it was a 7-12th grade position and while the opening was supposed to close May 9, it stayed open through May 13.
Ronda Monheiser asked for some clarity about the job positions. This year there is a principal, assistant principal, Smock did some intervention and senior seminar, the school’s SEL (social emotional learning) support was IEP (individualized education plan) students from Allie Miller, district social worker, and Johnstone did the SEL support for the counseling piece.
Prior to that, Caliche Schools had a principal and a dean of students, but this year all deans of students were re-titled as assistant principals except for at Sterling High School, which already had an assistant principal. According to Monheiser, the deans of students were teachers on special assignment, so when they went to assistant principal they moved to the administrative salary schedule.
Joel McCracken asked if policy was followed when that change occurred, Monheiser said probably not to the extent it should have been.
Monheiser said part of the issue is timing, noting that new positions should be proposed to the board to be considered in a timeline to be approved with the budget dynamics, then the position would be opened and interviews would take place. Now, the board is already a long ways in the budget process.
“We all know that RE-1 operates an extremely tight budget. The two primary things I always consider, what’s the student impact? And can we afford it?” she said.
Johnstone pointed out that their staffing requests all fit within the number of staffing FTEs Caliche has been allotted.
“I am still confused about how that works budget wise, because now we have more administrative positions and so what’s the impact on the budget? You staying within your FTE, to me, doesn’t really answer how is it worked in the budget?” Monheiser said.
Johnstone clarified that the academic advisor would not be an administrative position, it would be a teacher position, like they are at SHS.
“When we went through our budgets, which we went through with a fine tooth comb and we went through with Mr. Marostica numerous times, that was one of our things was do we have the ability to do this? And after two months of working through this the FTE is available,” Eastin told the board.
Johnstone pointed out in the staffing FTE that was allocated for each building by Glenn Gustafson, who is helping RE-1 with its finances on an ex-officio basis, some don’t match who is in the building. Caliche’s FTEs include a kindergarten teacher at Ayres and they also had a full-time FTE for Miller under CHS.
“If ours was like that I’m sure there were some misconstrued flub bubs somewhere else in other people’s as well and we did bring that to Mr. Marostica several times and he said not to worry about that,” she said.
Johnstone also noted when you look at the salary that was advertised for the 7-12th grade principal position verses the salaries between Eastin and herself as administrators, “there’s a lot of money when Mr. Eastin goes,” she said.
Monheiser pointed out according to the new principal salary schedule, which was approved later in the meeting with the note that there could still be changes depending on what’s decided with Caliche staffing, the low end of that initial job posting, $65,000, is too low to even be on the salary schedule because the PreK-12th grade principal position starts at $75,000 on the schedule.
“I’ve not seen the salary schedule and I’ve asked several times,” Johnstone told the board.
She asked if the schedule disaggregates a K-12 assistant principal versus a regular elementary assistant principal, Monheiser said at this point the salary structure was built on current structure of the principals.
In regards to the academic advisor position, Eastin said they had discussions within Caliche’s SAC, the proposal was also sent to District Advisory Committee members with the intent to present it at a meeting, but they got the go-ahead to move forward without doing that.
Steve Shinn pointed out they can’t go back and address changes that have already been made, but from this point forward the process needs to be followed and if different positions are going to be created, before those are posted and advertised they have to be approved by the board.
Eastin responded saying he got a call from Monheiser on April 12, asking about staffing issues for the SAC to be put on the agenda and he told her the SAC meeting needed to be postponed, because the school had started interviews for the academic advisor. Monheiser told Eastin she was unaware of that and needed to call Shinn, because it’s a new position, Eastin said okay and when she called back he explained to her that he met with Marostica who gave the go-ahead and at that time Monheiser told Eastin to do the interviews.
Monheiser disputed that, “my response was that it was going to be really hard for me as a board member to approve a person for a position before the position is approved,” she said.
“This position is good for kids, it’s good for our kids at Caliche,” Eastin told the board.
Shinn told him the board doesn’t doubt that, there is just difficulty when the process is done in reverse order.
“I assumed that when I talked to Mr. Marostica and he said go that he was going to go to you guys and approve the position and we’d move forward,” said a frustrated Eastin.
Shinn said he doesn’t doubt that and his reasons for doing it, but at some point in time things have to be put back on track.
Johnstone told the board she and Shinn visited two different times, once on Monday, and she asked that the discrepancy with the principal positions be discussed in executive session. The board said they would need to check with legal counsel to determine if they are allowed to do that and it would need to be done at a separate meeting, so that public notice can be given.
“We really do have the students in mind, but we also have to make sure that this is sustainable over time,” Monheiser said. “I don’t know how much you have read about the future predicted financial cliff for education in 2024, well that sounds like a long ways away but its right around the corner, so I do want to make sure this is well thought out and it’s sustainable over time.”
She shared that she checked in Gustafson and he seemed concerned about whether or not the district could afford it over time and he was going to do some analysis on that.
“Don’t think it’s not that we don’t to serve the students, because we do want to serve the students but we have to make sure what we do we can afford,” Monheiser said.
Johnstone asked if there is an FTE and a dollar amount with the position, $45,000, and it’s added into the general budget, why is that not sustainable. Monehsier said Gustafson explained to her that the buildings each have their own FTE count, but as far as the salaries go it all came out of the general fund, not a particular building.
“I think that’s where some of the miscommunication is coming from, because I don’t think we’re really talking on the same basis about where the money is coming,” Monheiser said.
Heather Harris asked if board allowed PreK-6th and 7th-12th grade principals if those positions have to be re-opened and advertised again. Shinn said he isn’t sure, they’d have to check with legal counsel, but he believes they would. He asked Monhesier and McCracken to figure out historical perspective in terms of hires the board may have approved before the job position was created and to look into how the advertising was handled and any inconsistencies.
The board will meet sometime before June 13 to discuss the matter again.
Under the consent agenda, the board approved the non-renewal of Adrian Flint, SHS special education teacher; resignations of Tracy Clarkson, second grade teacher at Ayres, and Miller, school social worker; new hire J.D. Marintinez, student summer grounds; and the retirement of Hykin, with a transition year next year, as well as meeting minutes from May 9 and graduation lists for SHS and CHS.
