Already unable to fill one open high school science teacher position, the Minot school board voted 3-1 to turn down a resignation request on Thursday from Minot High physics teacher Gene Curtiss.

Curtiss said in a letter to the board, dated July 27, that he has an opportunity to join Department of Defense Education Activities and teach high school at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan. He asked the board to release him from his contract and waive liquidated damages for submitting the resignation letter past the due date.

“We are 20 days from starting school,” said board member Bonny Berryman, who is also a retired teacher. “He should have let us know earlier.”

Board member Mike Gessner, also a retired teacher, who presided over the meeting in the absence of board president Jim Rostad, said the district has an obligation to students to make sure they have a teacher when classes start.

There were two votes on the question. On the first vote, both new board members Sabrina Herrmann and Mitch Kraft voted to accept Curtiss’s resignation and Kraft said he also wanted to waive damages, while Gessner and Berryman wanted to hold Curtiss to his contract. It was a 2-2 tie vote in the absence of Rostad. When a second vote was held, Herrmann was persuaded to change her vote while Kraft still wanted to agree to release Curtiss from his contract.

“If you force someone to do their job, that’s in my opinion not best for our students,” said Kraft. “… What’s the lesser of two evils?”

School district superintendent Mark Vollmer said Curtiss is a good teacher and dedicated professional.

District assistant superintendent for the high school Kim Slotsve pointed out that the district has been trying to fill a science position at Minot High School-Central Campus since April with no applicants and she plans to fill that position by asking other teachers to sign sixth hour contracts. If Curtiss was allowed to leave, that would be yet another hard-to-fill position left open.

Slotsve said the district also has several open special education positions that have not been filled. The board also voted to refuse to release Emily Westlake, a special education teacher at John Hoeven Elementary, from her contract. Westlake had submitted her letter of resignation to the board on July 21.

Districts all over the country have been having trouble filling open teacher positions.

Board members and administrators acknowledged on Thursday that teachers as well as students have had a rough two years due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The first day of school for students will be Aug. 24.

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Budget hearing to be held Sept. 8

There will be a public hearing on the 2022-23 Minot Public School District budget at 6 p.m. Sept. 8 at Minot High School-Central Campus. The district is looking at a mill levy increase after voters passed a bond levy last year to pay for new school construction, including a new high school and renovation of existing schools. The initial preliminary budget shows a deficit, said new business manager Laura Dokken, but the budget is likely to change in the coming weeks. The final budget does not have to be submitted until Oct. 10.