Detroit Lakes School Board Passes Resolution Terminating 18 Teacher Contracts

The M-State Conference Room was packed at Monday night’s Detroit Lakes School Board meeting, where concerned residents and teachers were looking for an explanation about 18 teacher layoffs following the school year.

Detroit Lakes, MN (KDLM) – Concerned citizens, parents, and teachers filled the conference room at M-State in Detroit Lakes during Monday evening’s School Board Meeting, looking for answers concerning 18 teachers that are having their positions cut or not having their contracts renewed at the end of the 2022-23 school year.

And they left without much explanation.

The crowd watched as the school board passed the motion relating to the termination and non-renewal of the 18 contracts on a 5-1 vote.

The 18 teachers are Samuel Bergren (3rd grade/Roosevelt), Joshua Erhardt (Special Education/DLHS), Laura Hunt (Special Education/DLMS), Brandon Johnson (Social Studies/ALC,eLaker Online HS), Shelby Layman (5th grade/Roosevelt), Heather Malone (English/DLMS, ALC), Amy Moors (1st grade/Rossman), Melissa Ostlie (Math/DLMS), Zach Paustian (Social Studies/DLMS), Erica Ratz (Social Studies/DLHS), Alicia Sabers (Special Education/DLMS), Samantha Salathe (Health/Personal Trainer), Hope Schmitz (1st grade/Rossman), Sadie Skrove (3rd grade/Roosevelt), Gene Stenstinger (SLHS), Dylan Surface (Health/DLHS), Valerie Teiken (Math/DLMS), and Madyson Webber (1st grade/Rossman).

The issue was only addressed when board member Mickey Okeson brought up the issue during Finance and Operations Director Jason Kuehn’s revenue expenditure budget presentation.

“Three reasons,” said Superintendant Mark Jenson. “Budget, enrollment, and licensure.”

“The challenging piece at this point of the fiscal year is we’re waiting and watching for what the legislature is going to do,” added Kuehn. “We’re hoping for some things to come and be beneficial to school districts, but at this time some of them are unknown. We are also keeping a close eye on enrollment and watching how many kids are here. We’d all agree that we’d all like to maintain the levels of programming that can do within our budget.”

“Enrollment is down state-wide,” said Jenson. “For Detroit Lakes, we’re up three kids from when the school year started. For us, that’s a win. However, many districts are facing a shortage of population. We had a presentation from the State Demographer during our latest state superintendent meeting and he reports that population numbers, and the number of school-aged children, are going down in Minnesota. People are not migrating here from other states. We’ve seen more job openings, but fewer people in the state to take those jobs. There’s a definite concern when it comes to the workforce, careers, and schools.”

The board did not address the crowd directly about the cuts, instead citing school policy 206 which states that outside concerns must be placed on the school board meeting agenda prior to the third Wednesday of the month, and that school board meetings are not an interactive forum with the public. The crowd was told that if they’d like to address the board to have it put on the agenda for the April board meeting.

The crowd got rowdy, and members of the gallery started shouting at members of the board as they left via a side door out of the conference room.

The next Detroit Lakes School Board meeting will be held on Monday, April 24th at 5:30 at M-State in Detroit Lakes.