Kalispell Public Schools narrows list of layoffs

Kalispell Public Schools on Tuesday provided a progress report of its efforts to notify employees about positions eliminated to balance a $2.9 million budget shortfall.  

The district is eliminating the equivalent of 39.35 full-time positions in the K-12 school district. The bulk of it is expected to occur through attrition rather than layoffs. 

Human Resources Director Liz English said 24 teachers took the district’s early-retirement incentive offered earlier in the year and two additional teachers will retire without the incentive.  She said there have been 11 resignations. 

Based on school staffing needs, the district is now looking at reducing the equivalent of 4.25 full-time positions, filled by five people. Two non-tenured staff were notified their contracts were not renewed. About three one-year contracts end this year that also will not be replaced. 

“Next week’s message will be if you have not heard from us, you are potentially not in that discussion anymore and everyone can kind of take a breath,” English said.  

Despite the job cuts, the district will still have openings, specifically in hard-to-fill positions such as counselors and special education staff. English anticipates 9.6 openings, which will be internally posted March 3.  She said the district will also maintain a callback list. 

“Anyone that we have on our final [reduction in force] list will be on our callback list for three years. So, we will hold the position they're endorsed for and offer it to them. It doesn’t mean we’ll repeatedly offer until they can find one they like but anything that they are endorsed or qualified to teach, we will put that out there for them,” English said. 

“Our [reduction in force] list is staff that we are invested in. We want them to be educators in our district,” she added. “... We want them to stay and we want to provide pathways to do that.” 

Formal reduction in force notices are scheduled to go out to affected employees May 8, after the May 6 high school district general fund levy election. The election outcome will ultimately be the deciding factor in the number of reductions, reassignments and recalls.   

“Keep in mind that if it passes, we’re in a definitely different spot than we are currently,” English said.    

A levy amount has not been announced yet, but the district has said in the past that it aims to cover the budget shortfall while fully funding the high school district. A levy of any type hasn’t passed in the high school district for 18 years. 

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.