Faced with a $2 million budget deficit for the 2024-25 school year, the Rice Lake Board of Education heard a preliminary staffing report that includes the reduction of 13 Full-Time Equivalent certified positions throughout the district and a few noncertified positions.
Several of those were positions with one-year contracts that were not renewed or retirees whose positions will not be filled, but one is a 13-year employee who spoke during public appearances.
Joshua Morey, who has been employed by the district as social worker since 2011, told board members, “In the preliminary staffing report, you will notice that a couple Pupil Services positions have been cut, including a school counselor and the district’s lone school social worker.”
He said, “I encourage you to restore these positions — not for my sake, I already had a fantastic job lined up that I am eager to begin this summer — but for our students. School social workers are uniquely trained to support our most vulnerable students and families: students experiencing homelessness and poverty, students experiencing mental illness and suicide ideation, students experiencing abuse, incest, sexual assault and rape; students of color; and students who are LGBT.”
He went on to say, “The evidence from comprehensive state and national survey data indicates that students are experiencing increasing levels of mental illness, anxiety, feelings of hopelessness and depression. ... The causes for these increases can be debated, but what isn’t debatable is the impact that highly trained and skilled professionals have on struggling young people. Indeed over the past couple years our students have repeatedly tried to express to you their need for more help, and they have felt largely dismissed or ignored. Unfortunately, that’s our school climate right now.”
Morey concluded his remarks saying, “I encourage you to tell them that they matter and that their needs are important, that you care about them by restoring the school counselor and school social worker positions.”
District Administrator Randy Drost said the preliminary report is informational, requiring no action by the board at this time. With the $2 million shortfall, he said he could confidently say the district will not have a balanced budget and will have to use its fund balance in addition to the across-the-board cuts.
School Board Member Miriam Vavra said she understood that cuts have to be made somewhere but said it made her uncomfortable to see the reduction of a social worker and counselor with all the mental health needs in the district.
School Board Member Bert Richard asked if interns or student teachers could help fill the gap, but Pupil Services Director Nate Vlcek said while the district has used them in the past, such as for a middle school physical education position last year, with teacher shortages those internships are hard to come by.
School Board Member Steve Bowman asked if the district could partner more closely with the county to which Vlcek replied that already being considered is a community outreach worker as has worked with the district in the past.
Drost said the district is also in contact with the county’s Health and Human Services Director Stacey Frolik on ways they can partner.
“It will put a strain on Pupil Services on how to cover and shift people where we need them,’ Vlcek said. “We can’t guarantee we will cover everything, but we will certainly try to.”
Other business, the School Board:
• Approved an occupancy, use agreement and ground lease agreement for the Aquatics and Recreation Center.
• Gave Student Recognition awards to Nora Brunclik, a second-grader at Haugen Elementary School; Colton Schmidt, a second-grader at Hilltop Elementary School; Harley Clarke, a second-grader at Tainter Elementary School; Keegan Xiong, a sixth-grader at Rice Lake Middle School; and James “Jimmy” Oakes, a junior at the high school.
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