Superintendent A.J. Dombeck broached the topic of adding two staff positions – one for Indigenous education/student support and another for special education.
The Laporte School Board approved the request during their Monday, Oct. 14 meeting.
“We get $40,000 per year for student support aid. You can carry it one year forward,” Dombeck explained, adding the district received funding last year for the, but wasn’t able to hire someone. “A very similar situation is true with our Indian Education funding, which after the last legislative session, our funding effectively doubled.”
Dombeck proposed combining the funds to create one social work position, “focusing about half of their time with our Native American students and half their time with others.”
But Dombeck said, “I think it’ll be challenging to find a social worker because there’s other schools in the area that have tried and have not been able to fill their postings.”
If the funds aren’t used, they will have to be returned, he said. This position “fills a need for us and maybe gives a different angle of trying to hire a social worker.”
The second proposed job is an additional special education teacher.
“Our numbers for special ed are not drastically different than last year, but the needs are different,” Dombeck explained. “Some of our students that need less-intense support are not here. Some of our new students that have come in have a lot higher needs, so we’re looking for a way to reduce the pressure on our special ed teachers.”
Dombeck added, “With our current level of special ed funding, we should be able to handle another full-time teaching position.”
It may be challenging to fill the role, but “we’d like to try.”
Dombeck said six to eight students have emotional or behavioral disorders; some are severely multiply impaired.
In other business, the board did this:
- Learned from Principal Lee Pederson the school will host a Veterans Day program at 2 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 11. The community is invited.
- Hired Trista O’Donnell as a substitute paraprofessional, Grace Baumann as a paraprofessional and Cailee Furer as an ECFE Parent Educator.
- Approved contracts with Caity Smith as Indigenous education coordinator and Jeffery Schmidtke as interim maintenance supervisor.
- Authorized Dombeck to select a snow removal bid once the bidding window is closed.
Due to Veterans Day, the next meeting is 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 12.
