Feb. 25—MITCHELL — The Mitchell Board of Education will get its first look at potential guidelines for setting class sizes when it meets for its next regular meeting.

The meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. in room 10 at the Mitchell Career & Technical Education Academy.

The board of education last discussed class sizes in the Mitchell School District

at a meeting in December.

Joe Childs, superintendent of the Mitchell School District, said at that meeting implementing such a cap would come down to a discussion on whether to implement a hard cutoff point for class sizes or having a more flexible soft cap that can adjust slightly for student numbers.

“The conversation is whether or not we want to have a hard class cap, by that we’re talking about a maximum number of students in a course or section. What I want to make sure we do as a district, without removing opportunities for our students, is to stay in a range that is reasonable,” Childs said at the Dec. 11 meeting of the board.

Childs said there are two ways to battle overcrowding in classes — either remove some of the individual unique class offerings or add more teachers to accommodate a particularly oversized class. Childs said he preferred a soft cap out of the two choices.

Grade sizes in the district traditionally average about 200 students each, but the current junior class has more than 300.

The guidelines expected to be presented at the Feb. 26 meeting “will assist in the decision-making process for adding additional FTE throughout the district attendance centers,” according to the Feb. 26 meeting agenda. If approved, the guidelines could go into effect for the 2024-25 school year.

The board is expected to review the following personnel moves:

* The new certified hires of Amanda Lynch, high school assistant track coach, $2,771; Matt Evers, middle school assistant wrestling coach; Stratton Havlik, middle school assistant wresting coach, $968; Macey Bohl, volunteer cross country coach, $1, effective 2024-25 school year and Caleb Sayler, volunteer assistant track coach, $1. All hires are effective for the 2023-24 school year unless noted.

* The new classified hires of Michaela Christopher, custodial at PAC/MCTEA, $19 per hour at 8 hours daily, effective Jan. 31 and Stephanie Baldwin, paraeducator at Mitchell Middle School, $18.75 per hour at 7.24 hours, effective Feb. 5.

* The transfers of Cheylee Nagel, special education teacher at middle school and high school to special education teacher at middle school and Shelbee Bunger, special education at L.B. Williams Elementary to district-wide behavior analyst, BCBA. Both transfers are effective for the 2024-25 school year.

* The resignations of Claire Stoller, 4th grade teacher at L.B. Williams Elementary and assistant track coach, effective end of the 2023-24 school year; Jeff Sand, ELA at Mitchell High School, effective end of the 2023-24 school year; Trevor Krugman, sophomore football coach, effective end of 2023-24 school year pending suitable replacement; Scott Mullenmeister, head girls soccer coach, effective 2023-24 school year; Gracie Kattner, special education teacher at Mitchell Middle School, effective end of 2023-24 school year; Rayann Larson, 7th and 8th grade math teacher at Mitchell Middle School, effective end of 2023-24 school year; Trena Porter, food service at Gertie Belle Rogers Elementary, effective Feb. 23; Jenna Miller, assistant debate coach, effective end of the 2023-24 school year pending suitable replacements; Jeremy Hurd, assistant principal at Mitchell Middle School, effective June 30; Doris Cordero, paraeducator at L.B. Williams Elementary, effective Feb. 20; Sadie Klumb, 5th grade teacher at L.B. Williams Elementary, effective end of the 2023-24 school year; Cara Blevins, 2nd grade teacher at L.B. Williams Elementary, effective end of the 2023-24 school year and Ashley Sand, 0.5 FTE 3rd grade teacher at Gertie Belle Rogers Elementary, effective end of the 2023-24 school year.

* The new Mitchell Technical College hires of Michael Gerving, student worker, welding and manufacturing technologies, $15 per hour, effective Jan. 8 and Mariah Ulmer, student workers, center for student success, $15 per hour, effective Feb. 4.

* The retirement of Jimmie Nicolaus, maintenance tech, effective June 30.

Also at the meeting, the board is expected to:

* Consider declaring the Mitchell Technical College student house No. 110 as surplus.

* Consider declaring Bobcat L28 loader and attachments as surplus.

* Consider purchasing a Bobcat UW56 utility loader.

* Consider declaring Ford F350 Super Duty Truck as surplus.

* Consider accepting the audit report from the 2022-23 fiscal year.

* Consider approving membership in the Eastern South Dakota Food Buying Group.

* Consider approval of the 2024-25 K-12 school calendar.

* Hear board member reports.

* Hear the superintendent report.

* Hear public commentary.

* Recognize the state champion gymnastics team.

The meeting is open to the public. The Mitchell Republic will livestream the meeting on its website.