Richland #44 Families,

Our school board held a special meeting yesterday to address House Bill 1251, a proposed bill that would bring significant change to Richland #44. This bill would mandate that we share a superintendent with at least one other school district. Our school board is adamantly opposed to this bill due to the negative impact it will have on our school district. The bill may be voted upon next week in the House and we are asking for your help to make sure our representatives understand the adverse effect it would have at Richland #44.

About House Bill 1251: If passed, this bill will prohibit small school districts like ours (those with 475 students or fewer) from having our own superintendent starting in the 2024-2025 school year. In order to have their own superintendent, a school district must have K-12 enrollment of at least 475 students. Read the full bill here. Our current superintendent/principal dual role would not be an exception to this bill, meaning we would still have to share the superintendent position. The bill’s authors believe this will save the state millions of dollars; in our district, it will not save us any funds and will actually require us to add an administrative position.

If this bill goes into effect, the superintendent would report to at least two school boards. This means that the Richland school board’s authority - and therefore Richland #44 patron voices - would be weakened. It also means that our superintendent would spend half of her time focusing on the students in a neighboring school district.

Additionally, this bill puts a cap on superintendent salary; school boards would only be allowed to pay a superintendent up to 1.5 percent of local and state revenue. This is concerning for two reasons: 1) staff pay should be a local decision, not a state decision and 2) this would mean a pay cut for many superintendents across the state, including our own. Our state and district risk losing our school district leaders at a time when finding quality superintendents is already a challenge.

We encourage all Richland #44 patrons to contact local legislators and ask them to vote no on House Bill 1251 (contact information below). We believe it is not in the best interest of our children, nor does it respect the system of local control that our state utilizes.

Respectfully,
Nathan Berseth, School Board President
On behalf of the Richland #44 School Board

District 25 Legislators

Representative Alisa Mitskog - amitskog@ndlegis.gov, 701-642-6444
Representative Cynthia Schreiber-Beck - cschreiberbeck@ndlegis.gov, 701-899-3232
Senator Larry Luick - lluick@ndlegis.gov, 701-474-5959

Key points:
- This bill will remove local control by forcing us to share a superintendent with another school district.
- This bill will not save our district funds.
- This bill will make it challenging to retain and/or attract quality district leadership.

Richland #44 School District

District Communication

January 18, 2023

November 1, 2022

October 19th, 2022

October 6, 2022