School Board of Portage Votes for Administrative Reorganization

The Portage School Board is going to give the superintendent, Ric Perry, a chance to put his plan into full action. Perry has a plan for administrative reorganization, believing it will help the school board and school district. And, while they are giving him the chance to prove himself, they also plan to keep an eye one everything that he is planning to do. The board discussed the matters with one another and voted closely, 4-3, to allow Ric Perry to work on the reorganization process, which would include putting the human resources director and curriculum director positions into one sing position.

One of the board members that voted yes for his plan, Rusty Rathburn, believes that Perry will make changes that ultimately affect the students in a positive way. Others who were in support of Perry say that they will be keeping a watchful eye on everything and if they think that something is not working, they will ask for help.

At a meeting, which took place on April 16^th, Perry announced that he wanted to be able to use a new plan that he came up with. He believed that putting the two positions together as one would still work out well and the 70 percent of time could be spent on curriculum while the remaining 30 percent could be spent on human resources. Perry also said that the person in the human resources position could work part-time, since there are several other employees within the department have some of the same skills needed for such work.

There were three trustees who simply did not agree with the plan and voted against it. Those trustees were Joanne Willson, Randy Van Antwerp, and Ted Hartridge. They said they felt that there are two separate responsibilities and that they should not be shortchanged by any means. Van Antwerp argued an interesting point, stating that by combining the position, it is almost like diluting them in a way. However, Antwerp is hoping that Ric will be successful and does give him credit for believing that he can make things happen, even with fewer employees. Hartridge said he was against the plan because he feels both positions need to be filled by a separately employee who should be working with in the position full-time, not part-time. He also says it is important that students are placed as number one priority overall. Parents who were attending the meeting were also not in favor of combining both positions into one. One parent, Debbie Rude, believes that the board is more concerned about their procedure than their students. She complained that they are not putting the needs of the children first, which is a huge problem.