R-I votes on admin for new school

The Poplar Bluff R-I school board approved the creation Thursday of a new administrative position for the alternative school.

The school, which will move to the Main Street campus, is the district’s next focus as the Early Childhood Center wraps up construction.

The goal is to open the alternative school in the fall, according to information presented during the R-I Board of Education’s monthly meeting.

Dr. Scott Dill, superintendent, said he expects the facility to be able to hold between 120-140 students.

“We have reached the point in our planning where we need to hire an administrator,” Dill said. “We’re having difficulty moving forward with our conversations because we’re to the point where we’re making programming and instructional decisions for a school and we really need whoever will be running that school to have a voice in those conversations.”

This new position will help with the decision-making process for staffing and programming for the 2020-21 school year.

According to board documents, there are 12 employees planned to move to the new facility. Seventeen professional staff will be needed, which leaves five positioned the district needing needs to create. This addition is counted in those five positions.

Dill said he will return to the board with input from the new hire on what the district needs verses “what we think we need” about those other positions.

The administrative position will be on the administrative salary schedule that starts at $56,030 a year, which is on the lower end for administrators with the district.

The rationale behind that is reducing the financial footprint of the project, while getting it up in a timely manner, Dill said.

He proposed as the facility gets developed, the board look at adjusting the salary schedule of that position.

“We need to gauge, and I think adjust the salary of the administrator,” he said. “Even though there are fewer kids, there’s a lot of stories there and a lot of needs. I don’t think this person, even with fewer kids, will have light duties by any stretch.”

Dill said the building is nearly ready for school. There will be some one-time maintenance costs in the older building, such as HVAC and adjusting the restrooms for older students.

Along with the alternative school, Dill said, the counselors and social workers will take up residence in part of the older building.

This move, he said, will allow them to have the space they need, with being centrally located and there to aid the students at that campus.

“This is a much needed addition for the Poplar Bluff school district,” Dill said. “Our discipline data shows year after year we are not adequately meeting the needs of all of our learners. We need something different. Our teachers need something different.”

The facility will be for students who are struggling in the traditional classes. Dill said while these include students with disciplinary struggles, students can also go there for a variety of other reasons.

“It will have a behavioral component in one side,” he said. “It will have a social anxiety and learning component on the other. Sometimes a kid just needs a different place to do school either short-term or long-term.”