School Board Terminates Employment of Longtime Technology Specialists

The Edina School Board unanimously voted Monday night, April 15, to terminate the employment of 10 technology specialists working throughout the district.

The move is part of a larger realignment process, including staffing changes in the district's human resources and communications departments. Before the terminations, Edina's Department of Media and Technology employed 17 individuals.

While all 10 technology specialists are out of jobs for the time being, they are being encouraged by district officials to reapply for a handful of new positions—with job descriptions aimed at advancing the department—with Edina Public Schools.

Several of the technology employees were on hand at Monday's Board of Education meeting, asking the district to reconsider the cuts.

Marilyn Kuppe, the lone Technology Support Specialist to speak during the meeting's public comment portion, said the decision to eliminate the positions of those 10 longtime employees represents "a great loss for Edina Public Schools."

"We're good people who work hard and frequently go above and beyond to serve this district," Kuppe said. "Many of us count our years here in decades. We care about our work, the staff, the students and the district."

Kuppe spoke out following several recognitions by the Board of Education of students finding success both academically and through extracurriculars. She encouraged her fellow technology specialists to stand up in the crowd, saying they also deserved recognition from the district.

Struggling to fight back tears, Kuppe said she was deeply saddened to have to witness her own termination.

"I don't think any of us ever imagined that it would end this way," she said.

Superintendent Ric Dressen said the decision to eliminate those positions was largely because of the natural evolution of technology. As drastically as technology has changed over the years, the job descriptions of those technology specialists was quickly becoming dated.

After much consideration—including conversations with other districts who dealt similar situations—Dressen said the choice was made to terminate all 10 of the employees and then fill brand new positions in the department, including tweaked compensation rates.

Dressen stressed that all of the impacted employees are being heavily encouraged to apply for those new positions, noting the district wants to see "every one of those members who are a part of our team today" back with Edina Public Schools.

"Our hope is they'll jump right back into that and we'll have positions that better align to what our strategic plan is," Dressen said. "We recognize it's challenging times for them, but our plan is to move forward with that and then hope that those positions will help us as we move forward with our strategic plan as well as our technology plan."

Dressen noted much of the success of Edina Public Schools as it relates to technology is thanks to the hard work of the individuals whose employment was terminated Monday night.

All 10 technology specialists will remain employed with Edina Public Schools until May 3. At that point they'll be free, alongside anyone else interested in the positions, to apply to work at Edina Public Schools.

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