Staffing, communication among topics discussed
Stemming from concerns voiced at both the May 9 and June 13 school board meetings, the Wessington Springs Board of Education decided it will hold a community listening session in July. The board will determine the July listening session date at its next meeting — a special end-of-year meeting — scheduled for June 29 at 8 a.m. The school board invites stakeholders within the school community to submit concerns, topics and issues they would like to discuss with the board before the meeting via a Google Docs form at the school’s website: https://www. wessingtonsprings.k12.sd.us.
During the May and June regularly scheduled board of education meetings, Wessington Springs residents Gwyneth Dean-Witte Fastnacht and Jeff Messmer expressed school district concerns including college readiness, the high school math program, number of educators leaving the district, lack of two-way communication and the need for a communitybased school approach.
“I am concerned about the number of educators leaving. How can we ensure that this is a good place to work so that we can retain our excellent teachers and attract new excellent teachers? It seems the turnover of some dedicated and experienced teachers is quite high this year,” Dean-Witte Fastnacht said during public forum in the May meeting.
Messmer echoed Fastnacht’s requests for an open forum community/school board listening and discussion session.
“We need an open forum, we need communication and we need facts,” Messmer said. “We have lost valued staff and I want to know how you’re going to educate my child. I need to be reassured my daughter is going to be ready for college.”
School board chair Todd Grohs said that once the date of the listening session is set, it will be well-publicized. In the meantime, the board invites the school community to submit concerns and other items of discussion via a Google Docs form that will be live on the school’s website by the end of this week. He also reminded meeting attendees that during the listening session, just as in regular board meetings, discussion of personnel is prohibited by board members outside of executive session.
Staff snapshot for the 2022-23 school year
At the May and June meetings, the board of education approved contracts for a host of vacant positions. Wessington Springs School District Superintendent Dr. Michael Ormsmith said that ads for vacant positions have been and continue to be placed in the True Dakotan, on the Associated School Boards of South Dakota (ASBSD) online job board and other nationwide online job boards. He said the school board also offered salary incentives for hard-to-fill positions.
With 500 teacher vacancies across the state, during an email interview, the True Dakotan asked Ormsmith to comment on what he attributes the high number of open positions in Wessington Springs and across South Dakota.
“The current job market is a product of many contributing factors. First, it appears that we are realizing what has been called the ‘employment cliff.’ As the Baby Boomer generation retires, there are not enough people in the workforce to fill the vacancies. The unemployment rates across the country mean that job seekers have their pick of jobs,” he began. “Second, there are fewer applicants due to the amount of high paying industry jobs available. Many college students do not choose teaching as their first job, and those people are graduating with high paying private sector jobs.”
“Finally, in this type of climate, the larger districts are able to meet their needs with higher salaries and benefits while the smaller districts are forced to reorganize and search for unconventional options. This is what we are seeing in our district,” he continued. “Many of our vacancies are employees retiring from the workforce this year. Others are going to spend time with family or leaving the education field all together. And there are others who are moving to new districts for higher wages, different job assignments or both.”
At the June 13 school board meeting, Ormsmith said that he expects to be fully staffed within the next few weeks. A list of recently-filled vacant positions is listed below, along with the name of the former district employees and new hires in parentheses:
• Elementary School Principal – Carrie Azure (Becky Fjerstad)
• Agriculture Teacher – Craig Shryock (Brady Duxbury)
• Middle School Math – Gloria Vavra (not replacing)
• High School Math – Katie Jackson (Melissa Kroeker)
• Fourth Grade – Julie Bruckner (Lisa Bergeleen, district transfer)
• Fifth Grade – Junilyn Sumayang (Vanessa Stevens)
• Elementary Special Education Teacher – Stanna Olinger (Lexi Johnsen)
• High School Special Education Teacher – Pam Rasmussen (not replacing)
• Elementary School Paraprofessionals – Holly Paulson, Marah Dornbush (not replacing)
• High School Paraprofessional – Roni Bergquist (vacant)
• Bus Driver – Kelli Shryock (vacant)
• Business Manager – Julie Kraft (Marcy Argo. Kraft will stay indistrict to train the new Business Manager for three months after Argo starts.)
Ormsmith said the hiring process for staff involves reviewing applications, holding interviews and recommending staff to the school board.
“Generally, interviews will be done by one or more administrators. In special cases, like our new elementary principal, we use one or more interview panels. We had one panel with me and two board members and another panel with Mr. Kolousek and several teachers,” he explained. “After holding interviews, the administrators (or panels) discuss the qualifications of the candidates and decide who to hire. It is my responsibility to make the final decision about what position to offer applicants based on the needs of the district and the applicants’ qualifications.
He added that after reaching a decision, he offers contracts to the selected applicant and those contracts are considered for approval by the board at the next board of education meeting. He said that board members do not participate in the staff interview process unless it is for a principal, business manager or superintendent.
Former Wessington Springs teachers weigh in
When it comes to staff turnover, recently-retired Wessington Springs Middle School (WSMS) math teacher Gloria Vavra also expressed concerns in an interview with the True Dakotan.
“I have spent 32 years in the Wessington Springs school district as an employee, and another 13 as a student. This year I have decided to retire. I had been contemplating retirement, but with some of the changes over the past few years, and especially this year, the time has come,” said Vavra. “I don’t feel we have a direction for our school. In the past we had teachers, community, students involved in the planning process. I feel like we have no input into the changes made in our school district.”
Vavra said she is concerned that the district is not moving forward in a positive direction of cooperation and achievement.
“The changes and challenges this year have caused a great deal of tension within the school and the community. The transparency and community involvement within our school district has disappeared,” she said. “There are major decisions made without input from other than a handful of people.”
Katie Jackson, former Wessington Springs High School (WSHS) math teacher resigned at the end of the 2021-2022 school year. She shared several of the reasons she decided to leave the district in an interview with the True Dakotan.
“For me, I feel like on multiple occasions throughout the last year there has been a direct conflict with my values as a human being and a teacher, making it not a place I am willing to work under the current upper leadership,” she said. “Community members have approached me saying they are sad I am leaving. I too am sad. This is not how I pictured my career with Wessington Springs Schools ending. I planned on working here until I was retirement age. This year was so demoralizing to me I chose not to take a job in any school system, I am going to do online tutoring and tutoring around town. It was so heartbreaking and exhausting and frustrating I need to step away for a year.”
She added that despite not teaching in the district, she will continue to send her children to Wessington Springs Schools.
“I do love the school in general. Only due to the fact that I know about the quality of teachers there, am I keeping my kids in the district,” Jackson said.
Julie Bruckner, the former fourth grade teacher at Wessington Springs Elementary School left the district after 12 years teaching in Springs and 29 years as an educator.
“There has been an inequity in what we are paying the teachers we have on staff as compared to what our hiring pay is for teachers coming in. This has been happening for a few years,” Bruckner explained. “In the negotiating group’s defense, previous to 2022 I never sat down and point blank pointed it out to them. Negotiations-wise, the priority has been trying to be competitive with neighboring schools when it comes to base pay — which is a good thing — however, there is nothing extra given to returning staff when it comes to base pay.”
She then provided an example: “Last year I was paid $42,900 and a new teacher coming into the district was paid $45,000 with less years teaching experience,” she said. “I brought it to the negotiating group and they didn’t think it affected enough teachers to bring it to the discussion table. As a teacher, you can’t negotiate individually. In my case, the only avenue I had to rectify the situation was if I didn’t sign my contract and reapply so I could come in as a new hire.”
“That was the thing, they are willing to pay someone they don’t even know almost $3000 more than a teacher that is established here, with someone who they know what they are getting. With someone outside of the district, you don’t know what you are getting. I don’t feel valued or respected.”
Bruckner explained that she wrote a letter to the school board and administration explaining why she didn’t sign her contract — she said she was trying to go through the only legal route that she knew to rectify the inequity.
“I assumed that would be a no-brain hire. I met with the board chair ahead of time to explain the situation and he told me he could see my point,” Bruckner said. “I made it clear I wasn’t negotiating outside of negotiations. I just let him know what I was doing so the board could pay me what they would pay anyone else off the street.”
When the elementary teaching position had been advertised after becoming vacant, she applied for the job.
She interviewed with Ormsmith and was told she would hear back by the end of the following week. The interview left her feeling unsettled and she said she saw an open teaching position in Kimball. She applied, got an interview and was offered the position the following day.
Bruckner said that when the given date for a response from Ormsmith came and went without a call or an email, it left her to wonder, “what’s with this game?”
The following week, she received a call from Ormsmith offering her the position of 5th grade with an additional option to teach 7th and 8th grade math.
The next day, she emailed the school board.
“I expressed sadness that the priorities of our district have changed with this new administration and I would not be accepting either of the positions offered. I then accepted the position in Kimball,” she said. “The next day, Ormsmith offered me the 4th grade position. At this point, there was a lack of trust and I declined. This wasn’t so much about wanting to be paid more as it was about being treated at least equally to new hires and feeling like I was valued by this district.”
On Tuesday, the True Dakotan asked Ormsmith and Grohs for response on the teachers’ concerns. At press deadline a response had not been issued.