Highlights & Insights
January 26, 2024
By Douglas R. Wermedal, PhD
Executive Director
Associated School Boards of South Dakota
The nation-wide teacher shortage has a powerful impact here at home as well as across the country. Like many of the complex problems facing education, the teacher shortage will not have one answer that responds to all of a district’s needs. Districts will have to be creative about combining a lot of little right answers to fill teacher vacancies.
The recent legislative session provided some new tools districts can use to assist with the search for instructional personnel.
· HB 1187; Districts may use one-year work experience as a qualifying credential in the CTE disciplines to hire a teacher on a one-year renewable permit. Districts must show an attempt to recruit a regularly-certified teacher each year a temp permit is granted.
· HB 1201; The legislature allocated funds to support another cohort of 90 paraprofessionals who want to pursue full licensure via the Teacher Apprenticeship Pathway program. The success of the pilot program encouraged the creation of this second opportunity and an additional 90 slots are now available. Interested parties should contact Don Kirkegaard at the Department of Education.
The ASBSD executive team recently returned from the National School Board Association conference in New Orleans and attended a handful of sessions which focused on the strategy of recruiting international staff.
An educator from a western state reported that one of his districts had spent $8,000 to attend a recruiting fair in-state and the effort had yielded zero applicants. When this same district traveled to the Philippines, spent $15,000, and recruited directly, the result was 200 applications.
I am certainly not suggesting you start figuring the mileage and per diem for a search committee trip to Manilla anytime soon, but you could consider working with the one of the reputable recruiting firms that operate in this space. Here are some additional best practice considerations to bear in mind to determine if international staff placement would be feasible in your district.
· Start early; districts with international staff recommend starting the process in December if you want staff in the classroom the following August.
· Select a recruiter with a professional reputation; Some recruiters have been accused of dubious business practices including charging candidates additional fees as they get closer to coming to the states. Candidates typically have to spend about $5,000 to get to the states depending on their country of origin.
· Housing is a lead consideration; having a place to land either provided by the district or facilitated by the district will be the key to attracting/retaining staff. Many successful hires come with not much more than their teaching certificate and a suitcase. Items like furniture, cook ware, bedding and transportation may be start-up issues as well.
· Consider which type of visa you might be targeting; Broadly J-visas are “cultural exchange” visas and are for shorter terms — usually three years or less — and will require that the visa holder return to their home country at some point. H-1B visas are “occupation” related visas and are good for up to six years, with potential for extensions. Holders of the H-1B visas are permitted to pursue green cards to remain in the U.S. without returning to their home country.
Typically, there is no reduction in quality of the teaching staff since many of the candidates hold master’s degrees with several years of classroom experience. For the international staff, the attraction is the generous compensation paid by U.S. schools when compared to their country of origin. For many candidates one month of U.S. wages will be equivalent with what they could make in a year in their home country.
According to the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, more than 5,700 teachers were in the U.S. on exchange visas, and more than 2,000 of these were from the Philippines. The remaining top five countries of origin were Jamaica, Spain, Colombia, and Mexico. Our neighbor, North Dakota hired 66 of these teachers in the 2022-23 school year.
South Dakota districts with international staff include Oglala-Lakota County, Todd County, Bennett County, Sisseton, Faulkton Area, and White River.
This is reassuring for districts considering this as a work force development potential. You will not be blazing a trail, just using another tool to respond to your district’s work force needs.
Hiring international staff is not necessarily a new strategy, but as South Dakota and surrounding states continue to practice this strategy, it may be easier for follow-on districts to use this approach as well. However challenging the process of hiring international staff may be, it does produce results. Teachers get hired.
For practical “been-there-done-that advice” in hiring international staff, contact Louann Krogman of White River at louannkrogman@k12.sd.us, or Ryan Nelson of Faulkton Area Schools at ryan.nelson@k12.sd.us.
Lion advertises that its line of electric school buses reduce energy costs by 80% and maintenance costs by 60% versus most diesel fleets.
To this point, servicing has been done remotely from Lion’s diagnostic center. The only traveling anyone from the school had to do was for the initial test drive at the dealership in Shakopee, Minnesota.
So far, it’s been smooth sailing --or driving-- minus a few charging complications that have necessitated the use of the backup diesel bus, but overall, the new bus is a hit with students and the driver.
“The music is played through a speaker under the hood when the bus is traveling less than 10 mph,” Van Regenmorter said. “This is to ensure that students are able to hear that the bus is approaching a stop since there is not any engine noise.”
The 71-seat bus has a 125-mile range, according to the manufacturer, with De Smet using it on an 80-mile route. Regenerative braking, which uses kinetic energy while the bus is coasting or slowing to recharge the battery, can extend the mileage, but usually only by minuscule amounts. Since the bus only takes between four and five hours to recharge, its battery is full and ready to go again in time for children to ride home.
Though Lion Electric doesn’t list any “minimum use temperature,” De Smet only uses the electric bus on above-freezing days. That’s because cold weather reduces efficiency of lithium-ion batteries, meaning the range can deplete anywhere from 4% to 35% depending on conditions.
The EPA’s program is similar to South Dakota’s Clean Diesel Grant Program, which gives rebates to districts that replaced older, high-emitting diesel buses with more efficient EPA-certified ones. But while the state program incentivises the adoption of more efficient electric, diesel, or other cleaner energies over what it considers “high-emitting” older diesels through partial rebates, the EPA’s program focused almost exclusively on electric school buses.
Another big difference is the EPA’s program is a 100% rebate, while the South Dakota program offers rebates of 25%, 35%, or 45% depending on the replacement bus’ emission certification.
The sign-up window for the EPA program is closed now, but the agency expects another opportunity for districts to apply over the next several years as funding allows. Van Regenmorter says the district will consider applying for the grant in the future, and also encouraged any other district considering an electric school bus to talk to districts that are currently using them and to make sure there’s an opportunity to test drive the vehicle before purchasing.
“Overall, we’ve been happy with the electric bus and the money that it is saving the district,” she said.
By Jacob Boyko
ASBSD Communications Intern
Being a father of eight children, Shane Roth has a substantial interest in public education.
Going back to his twenties, when the would-be ASBSD vice president was a young father of two, Roth already had a seat on his district’s board, serving the schools that in turn served his family.
“Just having kids in the school district, I thought it would be important for parents to be involved,” Roth said.
Roth’s first run was for a seat on the Sioux Valley School Board in Volga, South Dakota, where he served for a couple of years before stepping down when his family moved to Brookings.
When the Roths decided to move to De Smet a few years later, he again saw an opportunity to serve his community.
“I had a lot of kids in the school system, and I was approached by various board members asking if I’d be interested in running, so I took out a petition.”
Fast forward 12 years to 2024, and Roth is the board president of the 338-student district. It’s a district he (and evidently, many others) are immensely proud of; Roth says the district enjoys “tremendous” community support.
“Our enrollment is growing, we’re building a new elementary, we built a new athletic complex that’s benefited the kids,” Roth beamed.
“In a lot of small towns, the school becomes the center of the community,” he added. “And De Smet’s no exception to that.”
Roth always had an interest in politics and government, and cherished the opportunity to become a part of that critical process.
“There’s a misnomer, I think, from the general public, that thinks, ‘oh, you’re on the school board so you run the school,’ but we don’t run the school. I set policy, set budgets, and set a direction, but I don’t run the school.”
Roth grew up in Colman, South Dakota, where he enjoyed golf, basketball, and track. He graduated in a class of 16 students, which was before Colman’s district merged with Egan’s district. He then went on to attend South Dakota State University studying English.
Today he serves as the vice president of operations at Coleman-based T&R Electric, where he’s worked for more than 30 years. It’s an hour-long commute from De Smet, where his wife works full time as a paraprofessional, but anyone who knows Roth understands he’s a guy who’s always on the go.
“Who has eight kids, two jobs, is president of his local school board and still finds time for ASBSD involvement? The answer is, of course, Shane Roth,” ASBSD Executive Director Dr. Douglas Wermedal said.
“Shane is an excuse-wrecker,” Wermedal continued. “However, busy you might be, Shane is probably busier and yet maintains a record of impactful involvement on his board and with ASBSD. We are grateful he chooses ASBSD amongst his many commitments.”
Roth joined the ASBSD Board of Directors in 2018, and currently serves as 2nd Vice President, and starting this summer, he’ll sit on the South Dakota Retirement Board of Trustees where he will represent ASBSD and school boards.
“I haven’t been on the De Smet school board very long, but the first thing I noticed when I was appointed to the school board was Shane’s knowledge of how the school finances work, where the money is going and where it is coming from,” De Smet school board members Evan Buckmiller said.
Roth, absolutely proving Buckmiller’s point, said, “I don’t look at [budgeting] as challenging, because we’re allotted so many dollars and we have to spend the dollars we’re allotted.”
One area Roth said is challenging for De Smet is teacher recruitment. The town is close to an hour from any other population center, so Roth’s strategy is to keep wages “the best in the area” to attract talent to the town of just over 1,000 people.
“Shane is very proud of the De Smet school district and is always talking very highly of the staff,” Buckmiller said. “Shane says, ‘we have the best’, and it’s a very high priority for him to keep the best in De Smet to provide the best education for our students. We’re lucky to have Shane on the De Smet school board for his knowledge and dedication to the taxpayers, staff, and students.”
Roth, not one to take credit, said: “I think if you go in there and you always do what’s in the best interest of the kids, then you’re making the right choice.”
With Liberty and Justice for All
By Douglas R. Wermedal, PhD
Executive Director
Associated School Boards of South Dakota
Hayward Elementary School is a K-6 educational outpost in a town so small that the school and its handful of staff are the town’s leading employer. Inside the sturdy brown brick walls of Hayward Elementary, every day, in every classroom started the same way. Children milling about, hanging up coats on their assigned hooks, pulling off boots, and the general indistinct murmur of a dozen whispered conversations and perhaps one or two shouted ones. Stuffing sack-lunched sandwiches into disorderly desks, laughing and giggling, maybe some pushing and shoving left over from a playground skirmish. Eventually the teacher would ask us to take our seats and the swirling, chaotic amoeba of third graders would cleave and separate into 24 different desks.
Following roll call, the teacher would have us stand at attention beside our desks and face the flag at the front of our classroom and recite the Pledge of Allegiance, after which we would sing badly (but enthusiastically) My Country Tis of Thee. On one occasion when I had missed the bus and arrived at school a full 10 minutes late, I happened to enter the school building with all seven classrooms mid-song, but slightly at different points in the tune. One hundred and fifty cherubic voices spilled out of the classrooms echoed down the masonry walls and rolled back along the broad, polished terrazzo floors. I felt a wave of patriotism wash over me without really understanding it.
When the kindergarten cohort which started its educational journey in 1968 reached fifth grade, our teacher would select a student to lead the rest of the class in reciting The Pledge. We tried to figure out her system for naming a student to lead The Pledge, but it appeared to be random. Faithfully each day, some kid would be picked to lead The Pledge. The “volunteer” would plod to the front of the classroom, assume his or her post beneath Old Glory, and say with formal politeness, “Please join me in saying the Pledge of Allegiance.” We would rise en masse and recite The Pledge.
In doing so, we were reciting the words written by Baptist minister Francis Bellamy and advanced as a way of standardizing a salute to the flag back in 1892. Bellamy’s version was an update to an original work from George Balch who penned it during the Civil War when allegiance to the country was indeed in profound question. Although The Pledge was widely used by schools, clubs, and government entities it took until 1942 when The Pledge was officially adopted by Congress as a statement reverencing our flag and country. Twelve years after adoption, President Eisenhower suggested the addition of “. . .under God. . .” after hearing a sermon advocating for this change.
Perhaps my most prominent memory of The Pledge was one day in fifth grade when my best friend, Dan, was selected to lead the class in The Pledge. Dan dutifully struck a patriotic posture under the flag, and shoulders back and chest thrust forward, voice sure and resonant, hand over heart led a rousing version of The Pledge. Despite crushing it, Dan noticed that even as he did so giggles and pointing swept the classroom. Perplexed and returning to his desk he whispered to me urgently,
“What’s so funny?”
“Barn door’s open.” I said, stifling my own laugh long enough to whisper back.
Dan had boldly led our entire fifth grade in The Pledge with his trouser zipper in the down position.
What was worse is he had on a pair of black denim jeans which framed his gleaming tidy-whities in stark contrast. Dan zipped up quickly and tried to be invisible, if not indivisible, the rest of the day.
