The Minot Public School Board unanimously approved on Tuesday using federal COVID-19 emergency relief funds to hire six educational interventionists who will help elementary students catch up on skills they might have missed learning over the last year.

Superintendent Mark Vollmer said his goal is to hire already experienced teachers for the positions. The teachers will be assigned to different elementaries in the district and will report to Vollmer and Assistant Supt. Tracey Lawson. Kids will be assessed and some will be pulled out of their classrooms at times during the week to receive additional help from the interventionists on skills they need more work on. The district already has similar positions funded through federal Title I dollars and “look alike programs” at other elementaries, but more kids will qualify for help from the educational interventionists because of program rules.

The federal funding will be used to fund the interventionists for two years, but the teachers who are hired for those positions will be guaranteed positions in the district at their former salaries when the two years are up. Every effort will be made to put them back in their former teaching positions, in the same grade level they had been teaching before.

Nearly $1 million of the federal funding the district received is expected to be spent on the interventionists.

Vollmer said it is important to help kids catch up when they are young because academic difficulties can get worse over time.

The district will be looking at a tutoring program for kids at the middle and high school levels but is not yet ready to bring a program proposal to the board for approval, said Vollmer.

The district also spent some of the COVID-19 relief funding it received on an enhanced summer school program this summer. More kids are eligible to attend summer school and to receive help with reading and math as well as to participate in some summer fun, like a field trip to the zoo.

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, Vollmer announced that there will be public input forums on July 14 and 15 at the former Cognizant building to outline the district’s plans for turning that site into a new high school. The board is also considering asking voters to approve a bond issue this fall to pay for that project and other projects to address crowding at the middle and high school levels.