Cub Scouts visit Colfax Board of Education

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By LeAnn R. Ralph 

COLFAX   —  When the Colfax Cub Scouts visited the Colfax Board of Education, they had some well-thought-out questions to ask. 

One of the tasks that Cub Scouts can complete is to learn about community, said Amy Horchem, one of the parents accompanying the Cub Scouts to the Colfax Board of Education’s January 16 meeting.

The Cub Scouts could fulfill their requirement for learning about community by attending a school board meeting or a village board meeting, and the Cub Scouts chose the school board, she said, noting that Cub Scouts range in age from kindergarten to fifth grade while Boy Scouts are sixth through twelfth grade.

Three Cub Scouts attended the meeting.

What was the hardest decision or biggest decision that the school board has made this year? asked one Cub Scout.

Adding gymnastics as a sport for the school district, said Ken Bjork, school board member.

The decision to add gymnastics was not a difficult decision, but it was a decision that had a community-wide impact, he explained.

Hiring teachers can be a difficult task, said Todd Kragness, president of the Board of Education.

There is a shortage of teachers, so hiring becomes more difficult because there are fewer choices, Bjork added.

This year, the Colfax school district has 21 people on staff who are first-year employees, said William C. Yingst Jr., district administrator.

Snow days

How do you figure out snow days? asked another Cub Scout.

The process starts with getting up at 3:30 or 4 a.m., Yingst said.

The next step is to contact the National Weather Service for information as well as check the local weather forecasts and then contact other school districts, he said.

The Colfax school district is 28 miles long north to south and 18 miles wide east to west. Since the school district is so large, relatively speaking, there can be somewhat different weather conditions in different parts of the district, Yingst said.

Once the decision is made to not have school because of the weather, then 1,065 telephone numbers are called, and the information is placed on Facebook and is listed with the school closings on local television stations, he said.

The townships cannot plow everyone out first, and some areas have to wait for a while before the roads are cleared, Yingst noted.

Although he did not include it in his answer to the Cub Scouts, in the past, Yingst has said that when he gets up at 4 a.m., he also will drive some of the roads to check the road conditions.

Decisions

How are decisions made? asked another Cub Scout.

The school board discusses the issue, and then establishes a consensus, and finally, votes on a motion, said Ken Neuburg, school board member.

The school board sets policy, and then the district administrator follows the policy, Yingst said.

Why did you want to be on the school board?asked one Cub Scout.

Kragness said he chose to run for a position on the Board of Education because he wanted to give back  to the community.

Neuburg said that he had earned the rank of Eagle Scout as a youngster, and being a Cub Scout, Boy Scout and Eagle Scout had fostered a sense of community and a desire to serve the community.

Neuburg said that as a Webelo, he had “gone to jail” and that it had been an instructive experience. He also had brought some items from his own Scouting experience to the school board meeting, noting that his mother had saved many mementos related to his childhood.

Yingst said that his father had served as a Scoutmaster for many years.

Science Olympiad

The Colfax Board of Education also received a report about the Science Olympiad Invitational at Medford, in which Colfax scored 7th place overall out of 13 teams.

Some of the highlights include:

• Amelia Schmitt and Lauren Becker, 4th place out of 10 teams, Green Generation.

• Amanda Lemler and Lauren Becker, 5th place out of 13 teams, Anatomy and Physiology.

• Gracie Burgraff and Lauren Becker, 7th place out of 12 teams, Cell Biology.

• Amelia Schmitt, 3rd place out of 7, Horticulture.

• Gracie Burgraff and Lauren Becker, 5th place out of 9 teams, Chem Lab.

• Amelia Schmitt, 2nd out of 9, Forestry.

• Amanda Lemler and Laura Becker, 7th out of 12, Write It, Do It.

• Braden Kiekhafer and David Lyrek, 5th out of 11, Astronomy.

• Lauren Becker and Mark Sonnentag, 5th out of 12, Disease Detectives.

• Ben Bailey and Levi Becker, 6th out of 10, Flight.

WASB

The Board of Education reviewed resolutions that would presented at the Wisconsin Assembly of School Boards convention later in the week.

Neuburg is the school board’s representative at the WASB delegate assembly.

Of the 19 resolutions that will be considered at the delegate assembly, five are amendments to resolutions that were approved previously, five are resolutions that will be repeated from other years, three are asking for additional state funding, two are intended to close loopholes and two resolutions are related to licensure, Neuburg said.

One of the resolutions that is of particular interest to school boards is related to federal rule-making procedures, he said.

According to the resolution, “The WASB opposes attempts by federal agencies to impose policy mandates or edicts on local school districts, and/or to withhold or threaten to withhold any school program funding through issuance of ‘guidance documents’ that are really enforcement documents in disguise.”

WASB supports federal agencies using a formal federal rule-making process that issues public notices and gathers comments on proposed rules and regulations when making policy changes, especially when controversial topics are involved, the resolution states. 

The WASB resolution goes on to say, “Federal agencies have been unilaterally issuing guidance to local school districts that, if not followed, carry the threat of possible sanctions including loss of funding from the federal government.”

All money from the federal government carries a threat to withdraw funding if certain procedures are not followed, Yingst said.

For example, the Colfax school district receives federal funding for special education, which is essentially an unfunded mandate since Colfax spends about $800,000 per year from the general fund to make up the difference between the cost of the special education program and funding received from the state and federal government, he said.

Any funding the school district receives for special education is essential funding, but every federal dollar has the threat of penalties or sanctions attached, Yingst said.

Example

One example cited in the resolution is a decision by the U.S. Department of Agriculture made on May 5, 2022, that announced and called for, effective immediately, all school districts participating in any federal child nutrition program to enforce prohibitions on sex discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation.

This example seems to give the impression that WASB is advocating for school districts to be able to discriminate against students on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation without the risk of losing federal funding for nutrition programs. 

Readers should note Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) is federal legislation that prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance. 

Readers should also note that federal law prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation under Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as part of the prohibition on discrimination on the basis of sex.

Transportation

Another important resolution is the one related to parent contracts for private school transportation, said Jaclyn Ackerlund, school board member.

According to the resolution, “The WASB supports legislation to change parent contracts for the transportation of private school pupils from providing a ‘per pupil’ payment to parents to a ‘per household’ payment to parents if more than one eligible pupil is being transported to the same private school destination.”

Under current law, parents are reimbursed a certain amount for transporting one student to a private school, and if another student or students in the household are being transported to the same private school, the parent receives additional reimbursement for each student when the students are traveling to the same destination at little or no added cost, the resolution explains.

This is an added expense for school districts and is a loophole in the law, the resolution states.

Open enrollment

In additional business, the Colfax school board approved open enrollment spaces for regular education and special education.

Spaces for regular education include 12 for junior kindergarten; 43 for kindergarten; 24 for first grade; 41 for second grade; 33 for third grade; 30 for fourth grade; 25 for fifth grade; 32 for sixth grade; 28 for seventh grade and 30 for eighth grade.

At the high school level open enrollment spaces for general education include 21 for ninth grade; 33 for tenth grade; 13 for eleventh grade and 20 for twelfth grade.

There are no open enrollment spaces available for special education at all levels from early childhood through twelfth grade.

No enrollment spaces are available for contracted services, based upon the needs of an Individual Education Plan (IEP), which includes, occupational therapy, physical therapy, deaf or hard of hearing, vision impairment, and audiology.

Other business 

In other business, the Colfax Board of Education:

• Approved 2023 summer school programs in swimming and general classroom instruction in all areas including music, agriculture, and Summer Saunters, contingent on pandemic safety and conditions. Swimming will be June 5 to June 16. General classroom instruction will be from June 19 to July 3.

• Approved the notice of educational options, which includes a number of options such as early childhood programming, special education for students with disabilities, English Language Learner, gifted and talented education, career and technical education, at risk programs for students who are in danger of not graduating high school, summer school programming, Start College Now program and the Early College Credit program.

• Accepted a donation from the Speros Family Trust in the amount of $18,666. This is the second donation from the estate, Yingst said. A nephew is the executor, and his aunt was a Misselt, he said. The Misselt school was located in the Town of Otter Creek. On July 20, 1957, the Otter Creek Town Board purchased the Misselt school plus one acre of land from the Colfax school district for $1 for the current and existing town hall. Axel Bark, Menomonie, donated one more acre of land to the township on December 28, 1977, so the town hall is located on two acres of land on county Highway S (information is from the history of Otter Creek on the township’s website at www.townofottercreek.com).