Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
On Thursday, Oct. 7, all of New Rockford-Sheyenne Public School’s maintenance and custodial staff walked out, citing multiple grievances with Superintendent Jill Louters.
At 11:56 a.m., Louters received a text from O&M manager Tori Dockter, which was sent on behalf of herself and her custodial staff, Dalton Schuster and Randy Dockter.
The message read, “On behalf of the custodial team, Dalton, Randy and I, this just isn’t working out. We feel there is too much micromanaging, non appreciation for the work we do, and the general condescending attitudes we receive is not welcome. This is no longer an environment or atmosphere that is in the best interest of OUR well-being.
“We have all three chosen to terminate our employment effective immediately. Our keys are on your desk.
“Have a wonderful week.”
According to Tori Dockter, the custodial staffs’ decision to terminate their employment came after a meeting she had with Louters just hours earlier.
“My final straw was the meeting I had shortly before we walked out, where she more or less told us we weren't doing a good enough job, that everything was inadequate, and that there were lots of faculty complaints supposedly,” said Dockter.
Dockter went on to characterize the meeting as “condescending,” and contended that her staff have received multiple compliments about their work from the school’s faculty.
Both Schuster and Dockter explained that their reasons for walking out extend further back than just Thursday’s meeting. One of their primary grievances was an ongoing issue with scheduling and overtime.
According to Dockter, Louters consistently asked the custodial staff to work overtime to cover volleyball games, and when they expressed reluctance, planned to rearrange their schedules to ensure someone was working in the evenings.
Dalton Schuster, who had been working on the school’s custodial staff for nearly a year before walking out, detailed their struggles with scheduling and overtime from his perspective.
“Before she suggested one of us switch to a p.m. shift, which wouldn’t have worked anyway because of all the pink notes and teacher requests and other small jobs we had to do throughout the day, ... she was trying to make one of us come in for the game from 4 - 11 p.m., and [still have] us wake up the next morning and come back in [to work],” explained Schuster.
According to Dockter, the custodial staff began their morning shifts at 6 a.m., and would stay until 2:30 or 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Dockter added, “It’s almost as if she thought of the idea of overtime as a reward.”
Another grievance expressed by the custodial staff was micromanagement. According to Schuster, Louters was having Dockter document “literally everything” she did throughout the day, and had asked the staff to schedule “every part” of their time at work, in particular the times of their 15-minute breaks.
“With all the stuff she would try to change, like trying to schedule the breaks and trying to change their hours, I would try to vocalize to her that you can’t schedule breaks because it’s a fluid position. We get requests throughout the day and we don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Dockter. “As far as hours go you can’t go around changing it. I mean that affects people’s entire days, you don’t know what’s going on after work.”
NR-S school board president Mary Kay Price informed the Transcript that custodial staff did not reach out to the school board to express these grievances or file a complaint before they walked out.
Price added, “We have wonderful staff that pull together in a time of need and have offered to help in this unfortunate situation. We hope to have the position filled in the near future.”
In the interest of fairness, the Transcript also reached out to Superintendent Jill Louters for her side of the story, but did not receive a response before press time.
At the school board meeting on Monday, Oct. 11, Louters closed her Superintendent’s Report by briefly mentioning the walkout. According to her, the departure of multiple staff members on Thursday was not the only interaction with custodial staff over the past month, and that there are a number of issues that have needed “support and attention.”
Louters also mentioned that they’ve begun the process of interviewing replacements, and expressed her appreciation for faculty that have stepped up to keep their school clean as they work to fill vacant positions.
