Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
At their regular meeting on Monday, Dec. 10, the New Rockford-Sheyenne School Board indicated that the district will return to having three administrators for the 2025-26 school year.
Earlier this year, in the wake of Dr. Jill Louters’ resignation as superintendent, the school board was unable to hire a new superintendent in time for the 2024-25 school year, and instead hired internally in order to fill the position.
They ultimately decided to bring on long-time elementary principal Natalie Becker as interim superintendent. And after Avolt Baumbach’s resignation as secondary principal around the same time, the board hired math teacher Laura Hager to take over his position.
For the first time since the district was established in 2006, that left them with just two administrators.
There had been some discussion about potentially keeping it that way too, considering the significant cost of an administrator’s salary and benefits.
However, at Tuesday’s meeting board members seemed to be convinced that returning to three administrators would be best for the district and its students.
“I think it takes [three] administrators to keep the students, staff and parents taken care of,” said Board President Todd Allmaras.
Other board members made the point that workloads for school administrators aren’t going down these days, and that having just two administrators long-term could limit the district.
“If we want to do things like grants, we need to have people and time for that,” noted board member Mike Schaefer.
NR-S Business Manager Dave Skogen said the district’s budget should be able to handle a third administrator should the board make that decision, and that it’s more important to consider the district’s administrative needs than its budget situation.
With that, the board seemed to be in agreement that the district will return to having three administrators, though no motion to that effect was made.
Allmaras said they’ll likely know next month exactly what administrative positions they’ll have to advertise for. After hiring Becker as the interim superintendent, Allmaras had said their intentions were to begin another superintendent search in January.
In other business from Monday’s meeting, board members learned that their new activity bus could be just days from finally arriving.
They also carried a motion to have a new heater installed in their current activity bus, as it apparently struggles to get up to temperature when the outside temperatures are below 10 degrees.
The cost of getting the heater installed is approximately $5,800.
The school board’s next regular meeting is scheduled for Monday, Jan. 13 at 7 p.m.
