By MATT PIKE

St. Joseph School District officials are continuing to prepare for the shift into a two high school model next school year

After surveying staff of what schools, they would prefer to be at next school year, Superintendent Ashly Mcginnis says the current phase of the reorganization is meeting with those effected staff members

“With Eugene Field and Pershing being retired sites, and also Lafayette becoming a middle school, those were our main priority staff at that time,” McGinnis says on the KFEQmunnity show. “And so, we’ve had those one-on-one meetings with every staff member from those buildings, and we’ve actually met with Central High School and Benton High School, because there’s going to be some movement.”

McGinnis says with students moving from Lafayette to Central, which will impact staffing at that high school, also pointing out staffing could still be impacted by retirements or teachers resigning.

McGinnis says while discussions have been tough, but also gives credit to staff who seem to be understanding of the current reality

“And most of them have been team players, and we’ve had to go back to staff and say we really need this specific skillset at Benton High School or at Central High School and would you be willing to help us, or at Carden Park,” McGinnis explains. “And so, all of our schools have different needs, and we have those conversations with our staff, we’re trying to work with people but we also some specific needs that we need help with.”

McGinnis says it’s huge for the district to have staff willing to step up into positions of need to help fill staffing in the district.

As discussions around staffing happen in the St. Joseph School District with the shift to two high schools next school year, district officials are also being sure to keep the students top of mind.

McGinnis says the recently developed Student Advisory Council, comprised of students from all three high schools, has been meeting once a month with her.

McGinnis says the first meeting centered around students concerns and specific items preserving history, but things changed during this months meeting McGinnis says

“I was amazed by our students, they are leaders, and they didn’t want to just talk about the concerns or the issues, they wanted to be problem solvers and think of things to propose to me as steps of action,” McGinnis says. “And so, we actually broke down to three committees.”

The three committees focus around academics, climate and culture, and the enrollment increases at each school. McGinnis says students are mindful of the problems but are also working to create solutions collaboratively.

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You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.