Teachers List Need For Additional Staff Members
The Wolf Point Education Association provided a list of additional positions that teachers feel are needed in the school district during a collective bargaining meeting held on Tuesday, Jan. 14.
Wolf Point Education Association co-president Erin Loendorf said the list was based on a survey of Wolf Point’s educators.
Positions listed included dean of students at each school, a school resource officer, interventionists, drug and alcohol counselors and behavior leaders in classrooms.
“Nothing you are asking is impossible,” board chair Roxanne Gourneau said. “I’m not saying it’s going to happen right away.”
Currently, students displaying challenges with drugs/alcohol are referred to Fort Peck’s HPDP (Health Promotion and Disease Prevention).
School superintendent Dr. David Perkins said that he recently held a meeting with HPDP officials and there were discussions about coordinating services.
As far as a school resource officer, the school has advertised for the position for quite a long time.
Gourneau said the challenge regarding the school resource officer position isn’t financial.
“The problem is finding the right person,” Gourneau said. “It will be a bigger problem finding the person than finding the money.”
At one point, the school district was working on an agreement with Roosevelt County to help fund the school resource officer. Perkins said when he talked with county officials, he was told the school’s portion would be about $100,000 annually.
Interventionists or Title I teachers are tutors who assist students who are falling behind. Education association co-president Patricia Toavs said there used to be two interventionists at each school and now there is just one at each of the elementary schools.
Toavs said the amount of teachers in Wolf Point decreased from about 100 to about 70 in 2011-2012.
“We’ve never gotten those positions back,” she said.
Gourneau said to revitalize the community that education needs to increase and crime needs to decrease.
The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 28, at 6 p.m.
Perkins said a challenge during negotiations could be not knowing yet what Montana legislators might change for education funding.
“They are pretty confident there will be a 3 percent increase,” Perkins said of legislators.
Another possible concern is if the Department of Education is eliminated at a federal level. Perkins said there could be some good aspects such as less reports, but he said he is “nervous” about Title I funding, which includes special education.
