When looking at the projected student enrollment for the upcoming school year, the D99 BOE found that the enrollment is the lowest it has been in eight years. The board had considered cutting teachers, however, due to 13 staff members retiring between both schools, they will not fire any staff member currently working at either school. Additionally, due to DGS’ enrollment becoming more equal with DGN’s, there will be an administrative position added at DGN as well as two at the district office.

Of the 13 positions retiring about four positions will be filled. Teachers were notified about the new positions at the district by email from superintendent Hank Thiele, and were notified of the positions at DGN.

“It’s always scary to hear there’s a drop in enrollment, and that we’re not going to need as many teachers. It was scary to me when I was a teacher; you don’t want to hear these things. We’re trying to make it have as little impact on the school as possible, but we have a duty to the taxpayers to staff appropriately. On the other hand, we have student needs and needs within the building that we have to consider, so we have to balance that out and consider what’s best for the school,” Thiele said in an Omega interview.

The positions at the district are a director of special services and a director of innovation and teaching. These positions were added in order to have more security in case of other members leaving the district or feeling ill.

“I think generally this provides us more resources to support teachers and administrators in the building from the district office. The tasks have grown at the district level to the spot where it gets harder and harder to separate and to make tough decisions,” Thiele said.

At DGN, principal Janice Schwarze advocated for an assistant principal role. This administrator would help with programs such as AVID. English teacher Mike Tompkins believes that the main concern for administrators is to be responsive to the staff’s needs and student needs.

“The idea that administrators help or hinder is one of those either or questions, it’s not that simple. Administrators have a lot of behind -the-scenes work that they do to help students staff and the community and to make our building function effectively. That being said, depending on what the new descriptions are for those new positions and ultimately what they end up doing, will define whether they’re a benefit or not,” Tompkins said.