The Crookston School Board held a special board meeting this morning with one item on the agenda, to approve the termination and nonrenewal of the teaching contract of Wendy Willits, a probationary teacher in the Special Education Department.
There were five board members in attendance, with Kari Miller unable to attend as she had an appointment in Fargo early this morning. All five board members voted “aye” on the termination and nonrenewal passing 5 to 0.
Superintendent Jeremy Olson explained the board needed to either add the position they had cut during their March 25 meeting back or not renew the teaching contract. “At this morning’s board meeting what we looked at was we had cut a position,” said Olson. “In following the union we did need to make sure we either added back the position or not renew the teaching position that corresponded with the position. We did make the choice this morning to not renew the person corresponding to the position.”
Olson said this mornings vote gets the school board as close as it can be to their projected budget for 2019-2020. “As close as we can get it to this point,” said Olson. “We want to be very sensitive with our reductions. We don’t want to ever overcut, but this positions us well next year to be close to a balanced budget. That’s what we’re attempting to do for next year’s budget, is to balance it.”
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