Gateway Regional School District Superintendent Dr. David B. Hopson.
Each year finds the district replacing staff for various reasons such as retirements, moving back into the private setting, moving to a new location, or finding new opportunities in other school districts. These are always difficult times for various reasons including losing staff who have put in much time in learning the district, collaborating with other staff members as a team, and getting to know their students. In addition, the process of choosing new staff is always time consuming and the cost in time and resources to get new staff acclimated to the position is quite significant. Thankfully the majority of our staff stay in the district for many years with some staff coming here early in their careers and retiring from the district. Despite this, we typically find ourselves searching for teaching staff, occasionally paraprofessionals, and very rarely for other positions.
This summer finds us with two of the ‘rare’ positions to be filled.
The first is the retirement of Wendy McCaul who is a long-time employee in the district’s food services, including in her current position as Food Service Director. Her decades of experience in the district, including moving through various positions to reach the director level, and her leadership in the state regarding school food service, will be impossible to replace. We hope to find someone who has some of the same experiences, drive, and ability to relate to others that will enable him/her to begin the process of filling Wendy’s shoes. We are fortunate that Wendy will be on board for a little while to get a new person settled in and know that she is willing to be available for if needed, even after she’s officially retired. As some of you may have heard, we’ve been working with another district to research the possibility of sharing a food service manager with the idea of potentially saving some money. I’m not totally surprised that this arrangement didn’t work out in the end due to the reality that someone who is about to take over two positions is deserving of a significant increase in salary; not because of any increase in hours, but rather the increase in overall responsibility. While we were willing to negotiate more than a 50% salary for the part-time position, at some point it becomes more advantageous to have a full-time employee (for us it was when the requested salary was heading north of 75% of a full time position). As with so many attempted consolidations over time, the reality is that the money saved is often small and in some cases, due to having to support these positions in other ways, the actual cost is higher.
The second position is the move by our Middle/High School Assistant Principal, Mr. Anthony Sabonis, to the assistant principal position at Smith Agricultural and Vocational High School. Many may know that Mr. Sabonis came to us with a background in vocational education, which was very useful to the district. In his years here, Mr. Sabonis was instrumental in many ways and will also be very difficult to replace given his experience, attitude, and skills. We will certainly miss Mr. Sabonis but do understand the attraction of a position that doesn’t deal with two schools, that is a half hour closer to home, and that pays significantly more for a position that is much more curtailed in its responsibilities than what he was doing for Gateway. We’re very grateful to have had the ability to have Mr. Sabonis on staff and for his willingness to help transition a new assistant principal over the next few months.
As with almost all positions at Gateway, the selection process for these positions will involve many individuals working as a screening committee with the final decision resting, by law, with the appropriate building or district level administrator. We hope to complete the search for these positions before school starts in August so that everyone can start the year off ready to go.
