Somers-Lakeside district gets new superintendent

Casey Love will take over as head of the Somers-Lakeside School District next fall.

Love, the information technology director at Lakeside Elementary School, will replace Teri Wing, who retires June 30 after seven years as district superintendent. Love will continue working as Lakeside's IT director in addition to his role as superintendent.

"Really he'll have two full-time jobs," Wing said.

Love came forward after school board trustees were unable to find someone to replace Wing, she said.

"They weren't really thrilled with any of the candidates they had interviewed," Wing said. "At that point they were pretty short on money anyway."

The district will save one salary by having Love in two full-time positions, Wing said. Officially, he will be paid as superintendent, a job he will do full time. Love's job as Lakeside's IT director will be eliminated - on paper, at least - which will save one salary, even though Love will continue to do the job.

"We really appreciated it," Wing said of Love's offer to take the position. "When he came forward applying, it was fully with intention to help the district. It truly was out of the spirit of trying to help."

Love, who has worked at Lakeside Elementary School since 2004, said he was looking forward to the job.

"We've got a great staff at Somers-Lakeside. That's one of the main reasons I felt that I could do this position," he said.

"The staff is so easy to work with. They're great people, and I had their support behind me in doing this."

It will be Love's first stint as superintendent, although he has served as lead teacher in other districts. He was the supervising teacher in Dayton for 11 years. Before that, he was the supervising teacher in the Jackson School District.

To meet state accreditation standards, Love will finish the administrative courses he needs for superintendent certification through an internship program at the University of Montana. He already has a master's degree in education from Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass., and a bachelor's degree in elementary education from what was then Western Montana College - now UM-Western - in Dillon.

Saving one salary isn't the only positive news that trustees and school officials have received in recent weeks. Somers got another budget boost when its certified and classified unions voted to extend their existing contracts for two more years.

While the district will still pay its teachers the contractual raises they receive for accruing additional experience and education, Somers won't have to find money to pay for raises to base salaries.

Eliminating that expense will help Somers officials balance the budget. The district faces a $180,000 shortfall in 2011-12.

The deficit stems in part from declining enrollment. After years of rising enrollment, numbers have tapered off in the district in recent years. About 30 fewer students enrolled last fall compared with the year before.

As numbers shrink, so does funding from the state. Wing estimates the district will have about $75,000 less this year because of the enrollment drop.

Rising insurance costs are another significant portion of the budget deficit, she said. Somers will pay $65,000 more for insurance in 2011-12 than it did this year.

Because of those expenses, the board is considering money-saving ideas. Trustees have the option of asking voters for a levy June 7.

The board meets at 6 p.m. today in the Somers Middle School conference room to make those decisions, including setting a levy amount or deciding whether to cancel the levy election, Wing said.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.