Budget cuts

No, not at B-B-E...as this is the third year in a row where cuts haven't been made...but down the road at Paynesville Area their school board recently approved $310,000 in budget cuts for 2014-15.

To the north, Sauk Centre will cut $298,000 from their budget for 2014-15. One change at Sauk Centre is that admission for athletic contests will cost $7 for adults and $5 for students. They're also searching for a new high school principal while also preparing to deal with the cut to their Dean of Students position in the high school.

At B-B-E, we're actually adding staff for 2014-15 with the position of Technology Integrationist. While reading newspapers from other parts of Minnesota, I ran across the same thing happening at Rushford-Peterson. (Remember the R-P Trojans...state championship game?)

The R-P school board created a .65 FTE "Technology integrationist" position and assigned it to current AD/middle school phy ed teacher Dan Bieberdorf. He trades his middle school phy ed position for the tech. integrationist job.

Currently, the district uses a consultant one day per month to work with staff to integrate technology into the classroom, but with R-P schools continuing to integrate technology into the classroom, but with R-P schools continuing to introduce new tools into the classroom, such as iPads, SmartBoards and Google software platforms, the one-day-per-month consultation system has not been meeting the district's needs.