A bit of hullabaloo in the local school district here in Brookings.
Unexpectedly, according to an agenda that was posted publicly a couple of hours ago, Brookings School Superintendent Dr. Klint Willert has submitted his resignation to the Brookings School Board:
What might have brought this sudden resignation on?
One indicator might be the fact that according to the South Dakota Department of Education, the Brookings School District is one of three districts in the entire state who are at risk to lose their state aid to education:
As you can read on the State’s Department of Education’s website:
South Dakota schools seeking state accreditation are typically reviewed on a five-year cycle. The 1st chart below shows all state-accredited schools, along with the year of their next scheduled review. Information regarding the requirements for accreditation is available on our K-12 State Accreditation webpage. Educational entities seeking state approval have an annual application process. Those entities are shown in the 2nd chart below.
An accreditation status of “On Probation” indicates that a school district is currently in violation of one or more administrative rules required to maintain accreditation. A district may remain “on probation” while working to correct the violation(s). A similar process exists for approved programs.
An accreditation status of “Suspended” indicates that a school district has failed to address or correct one or more violations of an administrative rule required to maintain accreditation within a time period determined appropriate by the South Dakota Department of Education. A district shall retain a nonapproved status for the remainder of the school fiscal year or until the secretary determines it has satisfactorily corrected the violation. A public school district that has not regained its state-accredited status will become ineligible to receive state aid to education at the beginning of the next school fiscal year on July 1. A similar process exists for approved programs.
Brookings 05001 On Probation
Read the accreditation status of our State’s school districts here.
Brookings, along with Flandreau (Flandreau Indian School, as pointed out by reader -PP) and Wall are the only districts in the entire state who have not met compliance with the State of South Dakota after review, and have the possibility of losing their state aid to education if they don’t get their act together.
For a community that is as focused on education as the home of SDSU is, it’s a major debacle to be in such dire straits.
I can’t even imagine how much taxes would have to skyrocket to make up the loss of state aid to education in funding the school system. Hopefully they can get things back on track. Sooner, as opposed to later.
What a mess.
For purposes of clarity, the ‘Flandrea’ on ‘Probation’ is the Flandreau Indian School, and not Flandreau Public School.
Any idea what administrative rules the Brookings School District is violating?
I’ve made a request to the State DOE to track that information down.
Failure to teach the appropriate amount of freedom? That’s my guess.
They are not paying the teachers on the higher end of the Seven Indisputable Levels of Teacher enough, I am sure. These fat-cat administrators need to figure out how to pay the low teachers on the SILT less so they can pay the top teachers on the SILT more.
This usually happens when a Superintendent “digs in” and refuses to comply with an Administrative Rule. Superintendents don’t usually take that adversarial position unless he/she has been instructed to do so by the Board. The Board usually believes that by being non-compliant, they are striking a blow for freedom and dignity. But as always, “He with the gold, rules.”
If this is about not burning books that the inner party has declared bad, then good for the school. I hope it isn’t that, but its tough to know with today’s polarized ideology.
They should focus more on education and less on indoctrination. Perhaps then this wouldn’t happen.