Barnum school board votes to cut staff

The Barnum school board voted to cut positions from the school staff for the next school year at its monthly meeting on Tuesday, March 17, despite a plea at a community meeting a couple of weeks ago to cut the positions slowly.

“We are where we are,” board chair Colleen Fetters said, and called for approval of the reduction of one full-time elementary teacher, a half-time Spanish teacher, a full-time physical education teacher, a full-time math teacher, and a third-time science teacher. All passed.

A vote on the reduction of a half-time music teacher position in the elementary school brought discussion.

Board members Paul Coughlin and Jamie Fuglestad discussed trying charging admission at spring concerts, if there are any, to support the position financially.

Superintendent Mike McNulty spoke about the social media pushback from the public about charging a fee.

The motion to cut the elementary music teacher position failed when the vote was called.

Non-professional positions were also cut. Those included three elementary lunch/recess supervisors, high school detention supervisor, high school lunch supervisor, a half-time custodial position, a full-time clerical position, a full-time media specialist position, and two paraprofessionals.

The board also voted to reduce 262 food service hours.

In a discussion about a referendum on the November election ballot for an operating levy, the board members spoke about discussing it with the public.

“I think it is important right now to get those opinions from the public,” said board member Pat Poirier. “We can base our decision off of the last two (operating levy referendums) but this is a different time. We had to just change the entire dynamic of the school because of what happened (referring to COVID-19) but those cuts will still continue into future years. None of us for or against it. We need to hear from you.”

Fetters talked about sending out a postcard or a mailing that would describe what was proposed, instead of hiring a company for thousands of dollars to promote the referendum.

Board member Jessica Unkelhaeuser suggested conducting an online survey.

McNulty suggested setting up a focus group after the April 7 working board meeting for further discussion.

Board member Tim Peterson said that there were a lot of great ideas presented at the community meeting.

“Those ideas presented at the community meeting didn’t help us in the short term,” he said. “But there were a lot of good ideas going forward.”

The working meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 7, and the monthly meeting of the board is set for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 21.