Staffing switch

Gilman board approves ‘Dean of

Students’ positions

NEWS EDITOR

As the new school year gets ready to start in GIlman, four longtime teachers will be trying on new hats.

The Gilman school board on Monday finalized approval for a switch from a single middle/high school principal to splitting the duties between four existing teachers serving in dean of students capacity. They will take on the administrative functions in addition to their teaching duties.

According to administrator Walter Leipart, the idea has been months in the making after the previous principal announced he was leaving last spring. After getting the OK to bring it to the teaching staff, Leipart said there was enthusiasm for the process with nine staff members initially stepping up with interest in it. He said that as they were getting ready to do interviews for the positions, a number of staff members withdrew their interest leaving just three and current athletic director Robin Rosemeyer. Leipart explained that the switch will save district taxpayers significantly over the next year. With salary and benefits, it costs the district $120,000 a year for the principal position. Board members voted to set the pay for the Dean of Students positions at $10,000 and in the process boosted the athletic director pay to that level in reflection of the additional duties he will be assuming. Combined, the savings to district taxpayers will be about $85,000 a year. At the same time, Leipart said it will help keep existing staff at full time status. He explained that ongoing declining enrollment in the district is resulting in fewer sections of classes being required.

The Dean of Students will be as follows: Adam Johnson - Middle/High School Dean of Students with a focus on academic and career pathways and Department of Public Instruction reporting as well as after school activity supervision.

Tyler Pockat - Middle/High School Dean of Students with a focus on school climate, culture, and student discipline as well as after school activity supervision.

Mike Gingras - Dean of Academic and Student Services. Responsibilities include student schedules, master scheduling, senior scholarships/college applications, district assessment coordinator as well as after school activity supervision.

Robin Rosemeyer - Athletic Director and dean support as well as after school activity supervision.

Leipart noted that as the district is preparing to go to referendum next spring for a continuation of their five-year revenue cap exemption, it is important to show taxpayers that the board is working to minimize expenses and reduce overall costs while continuing to provide service.

Leipart noted that Gingras would be taking on duties previously being done by guidance counselor Megan LeMarche. LeMarche resigned from Gilman and pursued opportunities in another district. Leipart said that they are in the process of interviewing for the guidance counselor position, but noted that position’s focus is shifting to be more of a counselor assisting with the mental health needs of students. He said if hired the person would work under a provisional license until they complete their certification.

Despite the financial benefits of the change, final approval of the positions was not without some hiccups as board members questioned if the staff members would have time within their schedules for the work and how it would be implemented in practice.

Board member Valorie Kulesa questioned how many times a day would Gingras be called from his classes to deal with issues.

Leipart said they would be relying on community agreements with students and staff, noting that in his 16 years of being an administrator there are many times that things came to the office that belonged being addressed at the classroom teacher level. He said teachers need to take care of their classes and that there may be times when someone will have to wait until a class period is over to have a Dean of Students address a concern.

“Remember when you were little and your mom said, ‘Wait until your dad gets home.’ Sometimes you have to wait until the dean is ready,” he said.

That said, Leipart also noted that the schedule for the year is built so that if an issue needed to be addressed immediately one of the four individuals or himself are available at any time without disrupting a class. “We have multiple individuals that address immediate needs anytime it happens,” he said.

Board member Bruce Ewings raised concerns about the lack of women in any of those positions. He was concerned that female students may not feel comfortable bringing issues to the male Deans of Students. “I need to know that the girls have a place to go,” he said.

Leipart said they had tried to have women in those positions and that he had offered one of the positions to LeMarche but she chose to leave the district instead. He noted that female students preferring to talk with a female leader would be able to talk with the special education director or the individual he hopes to hire for the guidance counselor position. He said there are also a number of other teachers who would step up to help a student in need.

Leipart emphasized that the district is going into new territory with these positions and that if it doesn’t work out, they can always bring it back to the board for changes. He said this is reflected in how the additional pay is handled, noting it is separate from their regular pay and a separate employment agreement. This provides additional flexibility if the individuals in the positions decide they do not want to do it any longer.

In the initial votes, the vote to make Gingras one of the Deans of Students failed on a 3-3 vote with board member Darrell Thompson absent. However, following the closed session held at the end of the board meeting, Leipart said the board held another vote and voted unanimously to approve Gingras for the position.

In other business, board members: Approved changes to the district’s extracurricular code handbook with changes clarifying the number of days absent per grading period, when eligibility is reinstated and a lengthy discussion on criminal behavior. Under the policy change any criminal citation will result in a student being benched. Leipart said it is essentially taking the WIAA treatment of felony level violations and applying it to all levels with the penalty being imposed immediately rather than waiting until it goes through the court system. Board member Chris Skabroud expressed concern about the potential for unequal treatment as some things are handled internally while others referred to law enforcement giving the example of shirts being stolen. He said he would see the potential for star players to be treated differently than others.

Board member Jessica Wisocky noted that comes down to the individual ethics of the coaches and parents. She suggested that they should focus on those ethics and modeling proper behavior rather than “micromanaging two words in a handbook.”

“If there were two players and each sole a shirt, both should be treated equally,” said board president Cheryl Ustianowski.

“We have to be equitable,” Leipart said, noting they can’t use school rules as a hammer so “good kids” don’t get a citation.

Other changes to the handbook clarified the ability of student athletes to participate in two sports in the same season. Leipart said while the matrix is in place to guide if a student participates in their primary versus secondary sport, he expects it to be an ongoing conversation especially as sports schedules get disrupted. “It gets really challenging,” Leipart said.

_ Discussed what should happen with the space previously used for tennis courts. The courts are being removed due to becoming unrepairable and a hazard. Leipart said some options considered have been for off road vehicle parking, green space, sand volleyball courts or lab space for agriculture classes. He said they will be looking at scheduling a facilities meeting to come up with options and associated costs. He cautioned the board to think before they decide what to do with the space. “Whatever we build we better use it or it will fall apart just like the tennis courts,” he said.

_ Approved purchasing a school bus back from a driver/contractor for $6,000 or the appraised value of the bus. A driver is retiring and in keeping with past practice is selling the bus back to the district. The district will keep the bus as a back-up and dispose of their older bus used for back-up. With the retirement and changes in student population, the board also approved dropping a bus route and going with a total of five routes. Four of the routes are about an hour total with the Jump River route at 80 minutes total. Leipart said that no matter how they configured it, the Jump River route would need to be substantially longer than the others and that he could not justify adding 60 more miles of route in order to have substantially the same amount of time. Dropping the route will have a financial savings to the district of about $44,000. Leipart held this up as another way the district is working to mitigate the cost of the upcoming referendum.

_ Reviewed the start of school plans with the increase in COVID-19 cases in the county. Leipart reported on meeting with local health department and noted there were 33 active cases in the county currently with more expected. He said he remains confident in the protocols the district adopted last year. Under that plan masks would not be required unless the district reached a threshold of 10% of students and/or staff out of the building with the virus. Leipart said that the key takeaway from his meeting was that it is a highly transmittable form of COVID and it is going to spread rapidly when it gets in a location.