District 742 Reorganizing, Reducing Kindergarten Class Sizes

(KNSI) – The St. Cloud School District is reorganizing and planning for smaller class sizes for its younger learners.

District 742 officials are eliminating four coordinator positions, four director positions and one executive director position. It will also reduce kindergarten class sizes from 22 or 24 students to between 18 and 21.

Superintendent Dr. Laurie Putnam says some workers were being paid for with federal COVID funding and that money has run out. The other cuts resulted from retirements at the end of the year, and she explained to KNSI News, “When I looked at other districts of a similar size to ours, our district leadership team was more robust than most. And so, one of the things that I wanted to do is to make sure that we were being as efficient and effective with our taxpayers’ money as we could be. And with any savings, to be able to reduce the class sizes.

“We’ll be hiring some additional kindergarten teachers. Space may present some challenge and so, in situations like that we might need to provide some additional instructional support if we are just simply out of space, but, our goal is to keep our kindergarten class sizes inside of those ranges.”

The shake-up has created opportunities for some staff to also be promoted.

Tech High School Principal Jason Harris has been appointed assistant superintendent of secondary education. Talahi Community School Principal Nikki Hansen is moving into the role of assistant superintendent of elementary education. She will replace Mike Rivard, who will become the assistant superintendent of education services.

The administrators will begin in their new roles on July 1st.

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