Published: Tuesday, February 12, 2013 1:07 AM CST

The Yankton School District (YSD) school board met with Rick Melmer during its regular meeting on Monday to finalize the district superintendent search.

Board members also discussed next year’s budget, which currently projects to have about a $1.6 million deficit.

Melmer’s and Tom Oster’s consulting group, Dakota Education Consulting, will be helping the board in gathering candidates for the open superintendent position, as well as eliminating candidates that don’t meet the needs of the district.

The group has been involved in a number of education searches across the state, and currently is helping out with searches with the Wagner and Viborg-Hurley schools.

“We have a broad base of services we’ll be providing the district,” Melmer said. “We’re confident that we can find a good leader for the Yankton School District for the future.”

The group will begin advertising for the position within the next few days. Melmer said they have already received some phone calls about the opening and have also made a few calls to people they know who may be interested in the position. Advertising for the position will be done primarily online, as Melmer noted newspapers have not been as effective as websites in recent years.

Jim Fitzgerald and Kathy Greeneway, members of the personnel committee for the school board, will directly assist Melmer and Oster in the superintendent search.

“The recruitment phase will begin right away, and we plan on spending a lot of time on the phone over the next few weeks,” Melmer said. “In early to mid-March we will begin phone interviews for the position.”

He added that he expects the district to receive about 30-40 applicants for the position, with a handful not being qualified right off the bat. Plans are to close the application phase around March 15.

Melmer and Oster plan on surveying district faculty members, administrators and community members on the qualities they want in their next superintendent. They also plan on meeting with board members around March 26 on the applicants they interviewed on the phone, and who should be brought in for in-person interviews.

“We recommend doing all of the in-person interviews on the same day,” Melmer said.

He added that the decision on who the next superintendent will ultimately be entirely up to the school board, and the interview committees and the consulting group play only an advisory role in the search.

“The earlier time frame the board is looking at gives us some time to figure out interview schedules,” Melmer said. “The time table we’re looking at should put YSD in a favorable position to get quality applicants.”

Board members are targeting April 11 for in-person            interviews.

Also Monday night, the school board spoke about next year’s budget.

Jason Bietz, YSD business manager, said the district has been holding the line on expenses in recent years, including keeping the same supplies and materials budget over the past several years, and also have frozen pay increases for teachers and administrators for the past few years.

For next year’s budget, Bietz projects a shortfall of around $1.6 million, as of today.

“The projected budget does not take into account any one-time monies the state might give us,” he said. “It only considers ongoing revenue sources for the budget.”

The district recently utilized its healthcare reserves in order to avoid making drastic cuts to student programs.

“The health insurance we have is a significant expense to the district,” Bietz said.

Board members might consider utilizing healthcare reserves again, using capital outlay flexibility or unemployment reserves.

“The Affordable Care Act will have a big impact on the district going forward,” Bietz said. “Sixty-three employees will be added to the healthcare plan from us, having to cover employees who work 30 or more hours a week, versus the 35 or more hours a week we previously covered. We have to comply with the law or we will face significant fines.”

Also Monday night board members:

• accepted the bid from Jonhston Painting of Wakonda to paint Beadle School this summer;

• approved the bid from APS Sports Floors, Inc., for sanding, painting and refinishing the gym floors at Yankton High School/Summit Activities Center this summer;

• approved the bid from Floor To Ceiling of Yankton for carpet repair and replacement at Beadle School;

• approved the bid from Roy Johnston Roofing Co. of Yankton for roof repair and resealing at Lincoln and Webster schools;

• approved a five-year service contract with SDN Communications for high-speed point-to-point fiber connectivity between school buildings in accordance with Erate requirements

• approved an orchestra trip to Marty Indian School and Wagner schools.

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