Eagle Point School District reduces director positions, names several principals and flags enrollment decline under 4,000
Summary
At the July 30 meeting administrators presented a revised organizational chart showing a reduction of one director position, named new principals for several schools, and told the board that district enrollment recently dropped below 4,000, prompting discussion of possible staffing and program changes depending on grant funding.
Mr. Kovach presented the district—s annual organizational chart and two attachments at the July 30 board meeting, saying the documents list administrators, principals, assistant principals, supervisors, coordinators and confidential employees and show who supervises which programs.
The presentation identified several leadership placements for the coming school year: Christopher Abel Hopson will lead Eagle Point Middle School, Bridget Hayes will be principal at Eagle Rock and Heather Mars will lead Hillside. Mr. Kovach said Jennifer and Gwen started their first full year in new director roles and that the district reduced the number of director positions by one; the duties formerly under the eliminated position were redistributed among the remaining directors.
Mr. Kovach told the board the change is reversible if the workload or enrollment situation requires restoring a director: the district would advertise and post the position if it becomes necessary. He also said the decision was made in part because enrollment has declined and the district dipped below 4,000 students in the last year; he and other board members said they will monitor enrollment and grant funding before making additional staffing decisions.
Board members asked how student services and certain functions (homeschool and foster liaison services, gang prevention, ALICE/reunification planning, McKinney-Vento services) will be managed under the new structure. Mr. Kovach said those programs will continue and that some student-services responsibilities will be split among administrators until the board and leadership decide on a long-term arrangement. He said the district—s "student services" responsibilities are temporarily "squishy" while staff finalize supervision and noted the district can restore the director position if workload or finances require it.
Board members and staff also discussed broader budget uncertainty tied to federal and state grants, notably an unresolved High School Success grant amount; Mr. Kovach said the district will know more once grant awards are finalized and that future staffing decisions will depend on those results.
The board did not take a formal vote on staffing changes during the meeting; the item was presented as an annual report with follow-up to come.
