Recruitment and retention won’t change with two-high school model, SJSD says

With the St. Joseph School District preparing right-size schools in the coming years, the act won't affect the recruitment and retention for staff. 

"It's pretty safe to say that we will use every staff member that we have," said Dr. Gabe Edgar, SJSD superintendent. "I know that there's a lot of questions in the back of some of those folks' minds, and we just try to do the best we can to ease that, because we still only have the same resources."

As of now, the district employs 1,500 staff members across it's 36 campuses. 

"It's not like we're getting rid of kids, right? We're still going to have 10,500 kids and we still have to educate them to the best of our ability," said Edgar. "So we're going to need all of the staff members that we currently have."

Switching to a model, which would have 10 elementary schools, four middle schools and two high schools would still require all staff members.

Following the outcomes of the April 8 Municipal Election, Edgar said right-sizing and reconfiguring schools would not happen immediately. 

Plans to do so would be talked about during the 2025-2026 school year.