The Bayfield School District is advertising for new staff to deal with enrollment growth, especially at the elementary school, and to address a goal to meet the educational needs of all students.
The school board discussed some of the new positions on March 22. They had to balance a goal of step pay increases for staff against the cost of additional support staff.
Finance Director Amy Lyons listed the costs of step increases for all staff, around $170,000, plus one teacher at BES, a half-time teacher at the mid school, a half-time special ed aide at BMS, a part-time BHS orchestra director, a dean of students for grades 4-8, and the high priority along with step increases, an MTSS coordinator. A math coordinator position was taken out of consideration.
So what is an MTSS coordinator? MTSS stands for multi-tiered systems of support, the effort to provide education that works for all students, from special education to gifted and talented.
The job announcement describes it as: "This position will be responsible for providing training, consultation, coordination, and support to teachers, administrators, and instructional learning teams in the implementation of MTSS within the district."
Superintendent Troy Zabel said, "Our teachers are so busy... our administrators are running 100 different directions." This position is intended "to have someone on the ground every day to look at K-12."
He said, "This is the one position that we put highest on our list. ... We feel like we have the money. It won't be new money. It would be re-allocated from peer coaching. ... We could justify several of these positions. We just don't think we can do it."
Zabel added that this is not a teaching position, although it pays the same as a teacher. He argued that the person will be a help in the classroom because "our best intervention is tier 1 instruction." That's what every student gets. There is additional tier 2 intervention for kids that need it, and even more intensive tier 3 interventions for kids with the most needs.
Another position being advertised is a dean of students for grades 4-8.
Board member Janie Hoover asked about an assistant principal at the middle school.
"Not there yet," Zabel responded. "That's the next thing on my list." He also said, "Administratively we are struggling. We're larger than most districts that have these positions in place. We've grown a lot and haven't expanded administration." Principals have so many demands on them that they can't provide support to teachers, such as on discipline, and that affects the classroom, he said. "The administrators say their first priority is MTSS."
Board member Daniele Hillyer wanted another administrator more than the MTSS person.
"I think we can do both," Zabel said. "We aren't asking for a shiny new toy. We see areas where we are struggling."
Lyons advised, "If we did all the (proposed support positions) except the math coordinator, we would be about $20,000 into fund balance. I think we can work with that because of our enrollment."
Board members were OK with Zabel's request to move ahead with hiring the dean of students and the MTSS coordinator.
