With the Davis school district’s financial position gradually improving, and the school board seeking to implement the goals of the district’s five-year strategic plan, the board approved a set of new hires Thursday night that will restore 12 teaching positions, 4.5 staff positions and 2.6 administrative jobs.

The hiring of new teachers will help reduce class sizes at some schools. The staff positions include a groundskeeper, a night custodian and some elementary secretarial time and the administrative hires are related to the strategic plan’s implementation.

The teaching, maintenance and secretarial jobs were approved by the trustees with little debate, with the sense that they are putting back jobs they wished they hadn’t had to eliminate in the first place.

“No controversy here; we love it, we need it,” said trustee Tim Taylor, and that sentiment was reflected by his colleagues.

But the administrative positions did come in for some discussion, with one job — the newly created part-time post of public information officer (working at 60 percent of full time — coming in for particular scrutiny and discussion. But in the end, the proposed administrative changes ultimately were approved as proposed.

Taylor said he didn’t have a problem authorizing the hiring of a director of curriculum, assessment and learning, restoring a district office position that was slashed fairly early in the budget crisis.

“There is no question that curriculum is central” to the district’s educational mission, he said.

And Taylor said he was “persuaded all the way” that the district needs a director of personnel services in the human resources office, so that Assistant Superintendent Matt Best will have time to work on the creation and implementation of a professional development system for district employees — one of the major goals identified in the strategic plan.

Best’s title will also go from assistant superintendent to associate superintendent as part of a general reorganization of the district office.

“But I have some reservations about the PIO (public information officer) piece,” said Taylor, adding that the timing of the change is one of the points that worries him. Taylor made it clear he wanted to vote on the three proposed administrative hires separately, and not as a package.

Trustee Susan Lovenburg responded that “I think this board has been talking about a PIO for a long time and has not been able to fund (the position). To a person, (the board) feels the district needs a more comprehensive and timely communication process.”

School board president Gina Daleiden offered lengthy remarks describing how the past seven years of budget cuts had forced the school board to “pile positions on top of each other” at the district office because of the lack of funding, with the result that senior administrators are handling duties that had formerly been assigned to more than one person.

“We have a large organization, and in a large organization, you simply have to have managers at the top, you have to have defined jobs. … Right now, we have Matt Best setting up interview panels. … It’s not effective, it’s not cost-effective.” Daleiden said.

She added that she believes the PIO position is necessary “as a counterbalance to our hard-working attorneys who are extremely conservative with the amount of information they recommend we give to the public.” Daleiden said she’d rather see the PIO position staffed at 40 or 50 percent of full time.

Blair Howard, president of the Davis Teachers Association, said his group is “wary of the PIO” position, since “the last time the district spent money on communications was to hire a consultant” who advised the school board on how to handle contract negotiations with teachers.

Lovenburg eventually moved (and trustee Sheila Allen seconded) that the PIO position be approved at 60 percent of full time. Daleiden asked Lovenburg and Allen if they would consider revising the position down to 50 percent, and Allen responded that she’d like to see if there were three votes to approve the job at 60 percent.

Lovenburg, Allen and Daleiden then voted aye on the motion, with Taylor voting nay, so the PIO position was approved at 60 percent of full time.

— Reach Jeff Hudson at [email protected] or 530-747-8055.

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