Carrington School to hire additional elementary teacher

High school science teacher Carrie Nichols will take on a new role this summer. After 24 years of service to the Carrington School District, Nichols has announced that she will leave her position to become the next Family and Consumer Wellness Agent for NDSU Extension in June.

Nichols' early retirement application and letter of resignation were approved by the school board, who expressed appreciation for her years of service to the district. As is customary, her early retirement of $23,590 will be paid out in two installments.

Nichols will fill the void in NDSU Extension programming left by Donna Anderson, who retired on April 30 after 24 years as the family and consumer wellness agent for both Foster and Eddy counties.

Nichols will begin her new position at NDSU Extension on June 2.

The school district will now open the science position, offering it internally first before posting publicly.

There will also be at least one more new staff member in the halls of the elementary starting with the 2024-25 school year. Elementary Principal Jenna Helseth led a discussion about enrollment, particularly the fact that there are now 51 students enrolled in kindergarten. Helseth monitors enrollment closely and has noted several times in the past few years that she's comfortable with no more than 50 students split between two classroom teachers at that level.

President Joel Lemer noted that class sizes are critical, especially for grades K-2. The district aims to keep class sizes under 20 in the lower elementary grades, and ideally no more than 16.

After discussing the possibilities and implications of hiring an additional teacher, the board agreed unanimously to open the elementary position as recommended by Helseth. Initially, it will be posted internally as first grade to open up a third section. Current staff members will have the opportunity to move into the first grade position. Regardless, an elementary position will ultimately be posted at some level.

Superintendent Helm's December enrollment report showed that Carrington School has 615 students in grades pre-K to 12, up from 609 in September and 589 in May 2024. The fourth grade class actually has the most students, with 55 currently enrolled.

There are also two openings in extracurricular activities. Jill Fandrich has resigned from coaching one-act play and Kristy Hewitt from volleyball. The openings have been posted and interviews are expected to be held beginning in January.

The board held its second reading of Policy BDA, which establishes procedures for the adoption of board policies. This new policy gives the school board the authority to adopt new policies with only a single reading, whereas in the past all policies required readings at two separate meetings before they could be adopted.

Helm handed out binders to all the board members containing the first 20 policies to be adopted by the board using the new procedure. A special meeting was held on November 26, at which members reviewed several of those policies. The intent is to overhaul Carrington's policy manual to stay current with North Dakota School Board Association's update schedule. There are 38 policies that need to be addressed.

The school was briefly evacuated during the meeting due to a small fire in the science lab, caused by a hot plate left unattended. The fire alarms were activated, and the Carrington Fire Department was called to the scene. Six staff members, including Superintendent Janelle Helm and High School Principal Connor Weber, assisted with the evacuation efforts.

Upon returning to the library to resume the board meeting, smoke was visible in the high school hallway. The fire doors between the high school and the middle school wings had been closed, keeping the smoke contained to the high school.

The next meeting is set for Tuesday, Jan. 14 at 4 p.m. The Jan. 8 election results will be canvassed on Tuesday, Jan. 21 at 7:45 a.m.