News

Bottineau School Board holds special meeting

Scott Wagar

03/27/2012

The Bottineau School Board held a special meeting Tuesday evening to discuss three issues concerning a letter of resignation, a partial contract for two staff members in the next school year and an early retirement request.

LETTER OF RESIGNATION:

Jason Kersten, superintendent of the Bottineau School District, started the meeting by stating that Ross Roemmich, principal of Bottineau High School, rendered a letter of resignation to the school district.

“Dear Mr. Kersten and school board members, I would like to inform you of my intent to resign my principal position effective at the end of the 2011-12 school year. I have enjoyed my years of administration at Bottineau High School and I sincerely appreciate all the support shown to me by the school board, administration and staff members,” read Kersten from Roemmich’s letter of resignation. “Thank you for the opportunity for professional and personal development provided to me over the years. I have been very fortunate to have worked in the Bottineau school system, which is the best school in North Dakota. I am very thankful to have the opportunity to work all these years for the Bottineau school system.”     

The school board unanimously accepted Roemmich’s letter of resignation.

REDUCTION IN FORCE:
 

Kersten than turned to the issue of the school board contemplating non-renewals for reduction in force concerning Vickie Metcalfe, school counselor and 504 coordinator in Bottineau’s school system, and Dalonnes Roemmich, music teacher in Bottineau’s school district for grades five through 12. Kersten stated that the school wanted to offer partial contracts to Metcalfe and Roemmich due to declining enrollment in the district.
The board voted to approve a special meeting on April 2 in the high school’s conference room concerning the issue of the partial contracts. Metcalfe’s meeting will begin at 7 p.m., and Roemmich’s meeting will immediately following the first discussion.

EARLY RETIREMENT

The final discussion of the special meeting was to determine if Mike Forsberg, principal of Bottineau’s elementary school, should be granted early retirement.
Kersten requested that Forsberg’s request be denied due to the fact that three staff members have requested early retirement this year and that it’s the policy of the School Board Association that early retirement be granted to only two staff members per year.     

He added that since he started as superintendent in Bottineau that early retirement requests were as follows:

 

  •  2005-06: 1 request which was granted.
  •  2006-07: 1 request which was granted.
  •  2007-08: 2 requests in which both were granted.
  •  2008-09: 4 requests in which only two were granted.
  •  2009-10: 4 requests in which only two were granted.
  •  2010-11: 1 request which was granted.


Prior to voting, school board member Deb Syvertson asked if Bottineau’s school district held the same policy as the School Board Association.

“Bottineau’s school policy appears to be the same as the School Board Association with some leeway,” Kersten stated. “But, I feel the school board, no matter who is applying for early retirement, should stay with past school boards’ policy on this matter.”

When a staff member requests early retirement in the first five years of his or her eligibility, if granted, that staff member will received a percentage of their salary, which they can receive in one payment or in two separate payments.

Larry Brooks, Bottineau’s school board member, asked Kersten how much additional money would it costs the school district if they approved Forsberg’s early retirement with the two additional staff members already receiving an early withdrawal from the school.

Kersten stated the cost would be $34,000.

With that, the entire school board voted in favor of denying Forsberg early retirement.

The reasoning behind denying Forsberg an early retirement compared to the other two staff members was because the other two had more school years in than Forsberg.

Although denied early retirement, Forsberg has made the decision to still retire at the end of this school year.