Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Education Staffing topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Northland Pines board reviews staffing changes and proposes instructional coach; moves to closed session on personnel matter
Summary
Board members reviewed multiple staffing updates — new elementary hire, special-education openings, and a $28,000 farm-to-school position — and debated restoring a dedicated instructional coach to meet Title I obligations. The board then voted to move into closed session to discuss certified staff contract changes and an administrative vacancy under Wis. Stat. 19.85(1)(c).
At a regularly scheduled meeting, the Northland Pines School District board heard a string of staffing updates and discussed creating a standalone instructional coach position the district’s administration says is needed to meet Title I intervention obligations and improve reading outcomes.
Administrator Rod Stern Hagan reviewed recent personnel moves and vacancies, saying the district hired an alum to fill a fourth-grade opening created when a teacher shifted into a fifth-grade role. He also said retirements and resignations have left the district recruiting for two special-education paraprofessional positions and other openings. “We had multiple candidates, and we ended up hiring Allison, who’s an alum and student-taught here,” Hagan said.
Hagan described the district’s farm-to-school coordinator, Jasmine Schmidt, as “a huge asset” and noted the role is limited in scope and budget: “It’s only, like, $28,000,” he said. Administrators have discussed expanding the role in conjunction with the school forest program but have not posted any change to the position.
The central focus of the discussion was a proposal to create and fund an instructional coach who would combine intervention and coaching duties. Hagan said bringing back the position would allow the district to meet a legal intervention requirement at SOAR High School with a licensed reading instructor and provide coaching time at Eagle River and Saint Germain elementary schools. “If you ask me how do we get our scores higher, I think this is a tool in that process,” Hagan said.
Board members and administrators discussed how the position would be structured. The administration described scheduling the coach to spend roughly one hour a day at SOAR High School to satisfy Title I intervention requirements and the remainder of the time supporting elementary teachers in reading, math and classroom coaching cycles. Board member Speaker 2 raised concerns about workload and whether existing staff such as Nicole Rogers could absorb more duties; administrators replied the proposed role is intended as a standalone hire, not an additional duty assigned to current employees.
The board also clarified timelines for 4K (pre-kindergarten) hiring: the 4K application period is set to close on July 7, with a potential start date around Aug. 18, though administrators warned that summer vacations and competing offers have affected candidate availability.
Toward the end of the public portion of the meeting, Board member Speaker 2 moved that the board enter closed session pursuant to Wisconsin Statute 19.85(1)(c) to discuss a certified staff contract change related to work performance, an administrative contract for a vacancy, and related damages. Speaker 1 indicated assent and a roll-call affirmation was begun in the transcript, but the available segments do not record a complete tally or public outcome of that motion.
The board’s immediate next step on the instructional coach proposal was to include the position in the upcoming budget and proceed with posting and recruitment if approved. The meeting record available in the transcript ends after the motion to enter closed session.
