The Albert Lea school board voted to cut 14 teaching positions at is Monday meeting.

Superintendent Mike Funk said the teachers are being cut because certain programming hasn’t been set in stone by the state yet. It’s likely that some or all of the positions will be rehired with renewal of funding.

Funk said that around this time each year when there are cuts he hears that people think there are too many administrators in the district.

He went on to show the board that with a retirement and loss of school liason officer at Southwest Middle School, that school will actually be down to one administrator — Principal Jean Jordan.

He went on to propose a plan he’s been exploring, but there was no voting or approval. The plan said that instead of having a principal, two assistant principals, an activities director with assistant principal duties, two counselors and a school resource officer at the high school, some of those positions could be modified.

The idea would be that the community education director Chris Chalmers would take on the duties of the activities director. Funk said Chlamers wouldn’t be able to do all the work, resulting in the need of a part-time person which could cost around $20,000.

The plan would actually save the district around $90,000 because one assistant principal would move to Southwest. He also said he’d like to work with the Albert Lea Police Department to keep an officer in the building.

“The other option is you could take a teacher and make them activities director,” Funk said. “It would be an added cost and we’re trying to do this as budget-friendly as we could.”

He said in a perfect world he’d like to add an assistant principal and counselor back at Southwest, but he also thinks an assistant principal could handle counseling duties. The board will likely revisit the idea in future meetings.

In other action, the board:

• Saw a demonstration from the high school robotics team and learned more about its program. Look to the Tribune this week for a story on the robotics team, called Catalyst, and its latest competition.

• Returned a donation of more than $17,000 to the Albert Lea Education Foundation. The donation had been for the PAWS (or positive attitude with students and staff) program, which rewards students with incentives like gift cards. Lori Volz, the district’s director of finance and operations, said the school is unable to do those things itself legally, so the money will be returned and the education foundation will administer the program itself.

• Established a commercial card account with Commerce Bank that will allow the district to make payments electronically to vendors. Vendors pay the bank 2 percent for payments for the ease and quickness, and the bank has agreed to give 1 percent back to the school district. This could result in up to $20,000 in the form of a rebate, according to Volz.

• Approved a lease agreement with United Methodist Church for the use of two classrooms during the summer months for early childhood education. Brookside Education Center will be closed during the summer for heating and ventilation upgrades. District offices and board meetings will move to Albert Lea High School, and Community Education’s offices will move to Lakeview Elementary School.