School taking cautious approach to hiring new staff
By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor
While the McKenzie County Public School District No. 1 has already hired 17 of the 20 new positions that they were hoping to fill for the start of the 2020-21 school year, the district is now starting to tap on the brakes when it comes to filling the remaining open positions.
“Given the dynamics that we are in, we’re being very conservative on how many of the new positions unfilled we will be hiring,” stated Steve Holen, McKenzie County Public School District No. 1 superintendent, during the school board’s meeting on Tuesday, April 14.
Holen says as a result of the current low oil prices and the number of jobs that are being lost in the region due to layoffs in the oil and gas industry, he doesn’t know what the district’s enrollment will be next fall.
“There is a lot of doubt right now as to what our enrollment is going to be,” stated Holen.