RE-1 Valley staff head back to class
Superintendent Dr. Martin Foster: I’m here to help you, I’m here to support you
I’m here to support you. That was the message RE-1 Valley Interim Superintendent Dr. Martin Foster had for staff at a welcome back meeting Wednesday morning.
“It’s just wonderful to be back here with you, I can’t tell you what it means to me to see you. Me being here is surreal,” said Foster, who was met with a round of applause and cheers when he was introduced.
He told the staff, “I know you’ve been through a rough time, COVID on top of everything else, you’ve had a lot of people that have left, some of them retired, many of them have just gone elsewhere. We need to change that, I remember the old days, when I came here in 1986 nobody left, you made a career here and that’s what we need to establish. We need to put that back in place; we need to have something in place for our school district where you feel good about being here.”
His comments were met with a large round of applause.
Foster addressed what he called the biggest challenge facing RE-1 right now, salary schedules and contracts.
“I’ve never really quite seen anything like it, but that’s okay, we can fix it,” he said, telling staff he plans to put the schedules back together, similar to what RE-1 had a couple of years ago before COVID. “From there, we’re going to work to find a place that you are on that salary schedule, be it correct or incorrect. I know we’ve got several years here that a lot of people here were frozen, we’re going to try to address all of that, we’ve got issues with columns and steps, we’ve got some people with bachelor’s degrees that are in the master’s column, that’s probably the biggest issue.”
The certified salary schedule was adjusted to improve the base salary for employees, however, the way people were placed on the schedule was complicated because so many lanes were eliminated. In some cases, individuals with bachelor’s degrees were placed in the master’s degree lane in order to compensate for what they were making previously with
a bachelor’s degree and their numerous years of service.
Marybeth Skerjanec, copresident of the South Platte Education Association, also gave remarks and addressed salaries.
“It’s been a long two years but we’re starting to see some light and we’re starting to see some transparency and we’re getting some real collaboration with administration and our school board,” she said.
Skerjanec shared that she has dealt with a lot of staff this summer frustrated over the salary schedule.
“I can’t tell you how much work we’ve put in to look at what the possibilities are trying to fix what was seriously damaged. It’s not going to be quick and it’s going to be easy and I need you to be patient,” she told staff.
Right now, the top priority is to fix the certified staff salary schedule, “because that’s the one that is most potentially the most disastrous. But, we’ve put in a lot of work and I think we’ve got a great step forward.”
Foster promised to work with Skerjanec very closely and said, “we’re going to make huge strides in getting things done this year.”
He concluded his remarks, telling the staff how important they are.
“My message today is simply this, be you a teacher, an administrator, classified staff, I can’t tell you how important you are. I value you, I value you,” he said. “I’m here to help you, I’m here to support you, I don’t want you to ever forget that and as we move into this year. Yeah, there will be some hiccups, I understand that. Yeah, there’s been some big hiccups, I understand that, but you know what, water under the bridge we can’t change it. What we can do is change where we are right now and every day that we move forward.”
“I just want to encourage you, as we go into this school year to do your best. There’s nothing more important than what you do, nothing,” Foster told the staff.
At the conclusion of his remarks, the entire staff ended the day with a big cheer of “We’re going to have a good year!”
Earlier in the meeting, staff heard from school board president Steve Shinn, who thanked them for their patience as the district has been undertaking many changes.
“With changes obviously comes challenges and I know some of those have created some difficulty for you and we’re aware of that, we’re doing our very best to minimize the consequences and to get our system so it’s more user-friendly,” Shinn said, adding “we continue our efforts to improve the educational experiences for our pupils, their families and all of you that are going to be representing RE-1 this coming year.”
His remarks were followed by a message from Bank of Colorado Regional President Steve Meier and six gift card giveaways from the bank.
“We say thank you for helping mold our kids, our grandkids and from the community’s standpoint please know that community business is here to walk beside you and give you help when we can,” Meier told the staff.
After the giveaways, principals took turn introducing their new staff. While some buildings are fully staffed, others still have a few positions open. Sterling High School is in need of two or three more paras, Sterling Middle School needs two ESL (English as a Second Language) paras and Mike Manuello, director of maintenance and transportation, asked for patience as his department is “not even close” to being fully staffed.
During introductions, Elizabeth Mauler, director of student services, shared that due to hiring challenges her department had to look elsewhere for providers to fill some of the special education roles this year.
“It is not best practice for kids and we know that, but in order for us to continue to really truly meet compliance and what the law requires us to we had to contract out for some services,” Mauler said.
To that end, the district has hired a virtual special education teacher for RE-1’S Six12online program, a virtual social worker and a teacher of the visually impaired who is contracted with Colorado School of the Deaf and Blind and will be a hybrid model, meaning she will be in the district in-person for a couple of days each semester and the rest of her services will be virtual.
Foster also asked staff to bear with the business office as the accounting and payroll staff are all new, “it’s a task that you would not believe that these guys are tackling and they’re doing an excellent job,” he said. CFO David Portenier thanked former CFOS Deb County and Luke Janes for their assistance in showing his office what best practices are.
Skerjanec also presented the Frances Gillespie Excellence Award to Meri Vickers, a second grade teacher who retired at the end of last school year after 31 years in RE-1. She read several comments from Vickers’ nomination group, they described her as unforgettable and irreplaceable and spoke about how she sent emails and texts with encouraging messages and always encouraged team interaction on staff development days or after school.
“Mrs. Vickers has proven to be a dedicated educator, she consistently works to improve our teaching community and contributes to our students’ home,” Skerjanec read. “She continually contributes her thoughts and wisdom to the betterment of our students and the district as a whole.
In accepting the award, she recalled watching in awe other winners of this award during her career and she said during that time she aspired to be the best every day.
“I feel humbled and grateful to be standing here in front of you,” Vickers said, offering some words of advice to those still in the field, “keep on teaching, one good day makes up for several rough ones.”
“Please continue to fight for your kids, make the tough decisions, love them, guide them and remember to teach them how to think, not what to think,” she told RE-1 staff.
Following her remarks, RE-1 music teachers performed “Don’t Give Up On Me” and “(It’s Gonna Be) Okay” and recognized years of service in the district, from those just starting out all the way to 43 years in RE-1.
The day also included a health fair provided by Sterling Regional Medcenter and burritos and donuts for breakfast provided and served by SRM, Bank of Colorado and RE-1 Valley Food Service.