The International Falls School Board on Wednesday is expected to accept the resignation of district Superintendent Jeff Peura effective June 30.
A special meeting is set to begin at 5 p.m. at the Falls High School library to consider the resignation and discuss the administrative structure for the 2012-13 school year. Teacher layoffs are also scheduled for consideration; action was tabled at April’s meeting.
An agenda is considered tentative until the government body begins the meeting and makes additions or deletions to the proposed agenda.
Peura notified the board of his intent to resign last week. He accepted a shared superintendent and elementary principal position at Lake of the Woods School District in Baudette, which begins July 1.
However, Peura is under contract with the Falls district until 2014. His two-year contract was originally set to expire June 30 this year, until he asked the board for an extension on his contract. The two-year extension was granted in August. His resignation is not official until the Falls board agrees to release him from his 2012-2014 contract.
“If you’re under contract, you are legally expected to complete the contract,” Falls board chair Stuart Nordquist told The Journal in April.
During Wednesday’s meeting, the board is expected to discuss “what we want the superintendent position to look like,” Nordquist told The Journal last week, when he received Peura’s official notification.
With the expected superintendent vacancy at the district coinciding with the retirement of elementary Principal Jerry Hilfer at the end of this school year, the board may decide to combine the positions, according to Nordquist.
“That is a possibility that’s on the line,” Nordquist said.
Advertising for the position will begin after the board defines the position, Nordquist said. Because Peura’s notification came to the board late in the school year, the district may be “running right out to the deadline” to fill the position before next school year, Nordquist said.
Day-to-day operations in schools and classrooms will not be impacted by the vacancy, Nordquist said, explaining that the staff in the district’s central business office and school administrators are “very good support.”
“Our district overall is very stable,” Nordquist said.
In other business, the board is expected to take action on teacher layoffs. Consideration of the non-renewals of six probationary teachers’ contracts was tabled at last month’s meeting after public concern was expressed on the matter. Members of the public urged the board to select layoffs according to teacher performance.
The board agreed it would in the meantime investigate what criteria was used to determine the layoffs. Layoffs are a portion of the cuts proposed to avoid a projected budget deficit of $700,000 in spending for the 2012-13 school year.
The layoffs are proposed for Stephanie Davis, fourth-grade teacher at Falls Elementary School; Kim Kuffenkam, reading specialist at Falls Elementary; Terry Mason, Title I reading and math teacher at West End Elementary; Jonelle Mellstrom, kindergarten teacher at Falls Elementary; Beth Shermoen, fourth-grade teacher at Falls Elementary; and Darrell Schmidt, English teacher at Falls High School.
If approved, these teachers would work through June 1, the last teacher workday.
