The Merrill School Board will consider some changes to administration and reconsider the elimination of a high school band position during its meeting tonight.
District administrators are proposing to return to the previous format of having separate directors for Finance and Human Resources. For the past two years, the district has operated with a Business/Human Resource Manager that had two direct reporting supervisors, one for finance and one for human resources.
According to MAPS administration, the role of the Business manager has increased due to operating three charter schools, a regional special education program, four-year old kindergarten and Head Start. As a result of Act 10, the Affordable Care Act, and Educator Effectiveness, the role of Human Resources has also increased.
A return to having two separate directors will provide efficiencies in the central office by streamlining the day-to-day decision-making and approval processes. Each position will report to the Superintendent.
“By making this change we can take advantage of attrition by not filling the vacancy of the finance supervisor,” stated Superintendent Wally Leipart.
The cost of making this change would include an increase in compensation for the Director of Human Resources and the potential increase in clerical support in the Central Office. This will result in a net savings to the 2014-15 District budget. The actual savings is subject to the negotiated compensation for the Director of Human Resources.
The total cost of compensation for these three positions in 2013-14 was approximately $273,786. Projected total compensation costs under the new model are estimated to be $224,626.
The board will also consider making a change to the Dean of Students position at Merrill High School. The Dean of Students position was created as a cost savings measure and reduction in administration for the 2007-08 school year. The position has been considered for elimination during budget discussions in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Those discussions indicated that the District should consider consolidating the roles of the Dean of Students and Athletic Director.
“While there has been an increase in administrative responsibilities due to Act 10, Educator Effectiveness, and a request by the high school administration to replace the Dean of Students at least half-time, I do believe we should consider consolidating the roles of the Dean of Students and Athletic Director at this time,” Leipart stated. “By reducing the number of administrators at the high school from four administrators down to three, we can address other pressing administrative needs in the District and still maintain an equitable ratio of both students and teacher to administrator throughout the District.”
Another administration change up for discussion is the hiring of a teaching principal for Maple Grove Elementary Charter School. The request for that position has come from the Maple Grove Governance Board.
Maple Grove has been operating under a lead teacher model. The lead teacher has a full-time teaching assignment with one day a week to provide management of daily operations, communication with parents, supervision of staff and report to the Governance Board.
“This has resulted in the lead teacher putting in approximately 60-70 hours a week in the building, which doesn’t include lesson planning and student assessment,” Leipart stated. “This model doesn’t meet the needs of students, staff, and parents.”
Per the charter contract between the Friends of Maple Grove and the Merrill Board of Education, the District is to provide enrichment instruction, administrative support, staff evaluation and maintain all compliance requirements with the state.
“Not having a licensed administrator at Maple Grove has resulted in the District sending administration from other buildings out to Maple Grove for evaluation of staff,” Leipart stated. “This is time and travel outside of the primary responsibility of the administrator.
“By returning to a teaching principal role we can seek candidates that can provide instructional services that would result in more efficient ways of providing service to students and staff.”
By not replacing the Dean of Students, the district could hire a teaching/principal at Maple Grove without a cost increase.
The board will also discuss a board member request to revisit the band position elimination.
“The purpose of presenting this item is to provide the Board and community the assurance that while staffing levels may change for the 2014-15 school year, our intent is to continue to provide a high-quality relevant learning opportunity for kids,” Leipart noted.
Some have questioned the reduction in band.
“Based on student enrollment, course requests, and retirements, we can make a reduction in band while maintaining the same expectations of the program,” Leipart noted.
Marching Jays can continue to meet during the school day. One noticeable change to next year’s band program will be that all band students will march in the parade circuit.
Since the 2009-10 school year, Merrill High School’s enrollment has dropped from 1109 to 948. Anticipated enrollment for 2014-15 is 919. Over that same time period, band program enrollment has fallen from 260 to 149 last year, with an anticipated enrollment of 138 next school year.
In May, the Board approved staffing reductions for economic reasons to include a reduction in the Band program from four to three full-time positions. At that point the administration provided assurances that all course offerings will continue to be offered and that the reduction would have minimal impact on individual lessons as the high school instructor will now teach one additional large group instructional hour.
This change does impact the Middle School as well. During portions of the day, three band instructors were available to provide small group, individual and large group instruction at the same time. The change will reduce this configuration to two band instructors. While the numbers within the middle school program will not decrease for the 2014-15 school year, administrators believe this is a manageable configuration.