GC School Board honors top students, updates info on forensic audit and budget
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GLENWOOD CITY HIGH SCHOOL’S top students for the Class of 2024 were recognized during the April 22 school board meeting. Savanna Millermon and Sydney Grant have been named as the Class co-valedictorians while Will Standaert is the salutatorian. The trio is pictured above with the school board and high school principal Marcy Burch. Front row (L to R): Will Standaert, Savanna Millermon, Sydney Grant and Marcy Burch. Back row (L to R): Board members Jodi Main, Sally Standaert, Lisa Kaiser, Chuck Draxler, Steve Davis and Tony Mielzarek. —photo by Renee Bettendorf
By Renee Bettendorf
GLENWOOD CITY — At their meeting held on Monday evening which lasted nearly three hours the Glenwood City School Board covered a lot of ground.
The board met with and congratulated the class of 2024 valedictorians, salutatorian and technical excellence recipient. All four of the students and their families were present at the meeting.
“They’re a bunch of amazing kids,” said Board President, Dr. Lisa Kaiser. “You’ll make us proud, I know that.”
This year the district has two valedictorians. Sydney Grant is one of them. She is also the 2024 recipient of the Academic Excellence Scholarship and attended the meeting directly from a softball game that she was competing in. She plans on attending UW-Platteville for Criminology or Forensic Science.
The co-valedictorian is Savanna Millermon. She is headed to UW-Stevens Point to study Communications Sciences and Disorders so she can pursue a career in speech pathology. She also will be on the wrestling team for the college.
The salutatorian is William Standaert who is headed to UW-Madison for Civil Engineering.
Technical Excellence Scholarship is awarded to students who show an aptitude for technical pursuits. This year’s award will go to Eli Nerby. Eli, who already has a CDL, plans to attend Northwoods Technical College for Diesel Mechanics.
Forensic Audit and Budget Work
During the work session portion of the meeting District Administrator, Patrick Olson updated the board on the forensic audit and the budget.
A written document is being put together on the forensic audit. Once the district gets the preliminary audit they will redact any personal information in it and make the document public. The audit will be presented at a public meeting which will be held next month in the high school commons. Olson anticipates the meeting to be well attended and said the board will not go into closed session to view the audit.
“The first time that the board will see it and the first time that the public will see it, will be the same time,” said Olson of the forensic audit.
Mark Elsworthy, DPI Finance Director, told Olson that there is a 99% chance the district’s per student aid will be affected based on the previous superintendent’s decisions. What that adjustment will be is unknown at this time.
“We’re going to be in a situation where we’re probably going to have to go into an operational referendum,” said Olson.
Olson pointed out that the approval of about $2.5 million in facility improvements and talking about an operational referendum at the same time sounds like it doesn’t make sense. According to Olson, the district is in this situation because the former district administrator put money in funds 80 and 46. Both of these funds have major restrictions on what the money in them can be spent on.
He said work on the 2024-25 budget is ongoing and is proving to be a difficult task due to a variety of reasons. According to Olson’s report, there are very different budgeting strategies, processes, and protocols from previous administration to current administration.
“There’s a lot of moving parts,” he said of the budget.
According to the budget, the district has $254,000 in investments with Packerland which will need to be liquidated as it is illegal for a school to invest tax payer dollars in the stock market. It’s wrong to use public funds for this type of investment, said Olson.
“It is not our ability to use taxpayer funds to put in the stock market,” said Olson.
He’s working to correct the inappropriate funds through Packerland Investments. The way those investments are liquidated will also affect student aid.
Other parts of the budget that Olson is looking into include $17,500 that was put into the budget by the previous administration and labeled as ‘superintendent’s budget’ and $34,000 for 2023-24 sick day payout reimbursement. Olson said both figures seemed high.
Some budget related changes that Olson is implementing include running reimbursements to staff through accounts payable instead of through payroll. He also is eliminating the $10,000 performance pay bonus and will redistribute those funds to create a mentoring program for staff.
School Calendar Changes
Starting in the 2024/2025 school year students will start school at 8 a.m. instead of 8:20 a.m. and their school day will finish at 3:20 p.m. instead of 3:30 p.m. Staff will report at the same time, their work day will not change.
There will only be one early release day and that will be on the last day of school. There are 11 professional learning days scheduled for staff. All of these days all take place on Mondays so families can take advantage of three day weekends.
“We’ve had a lot of discussion,” Olson said of the calendar changes.
Principal’s Reports
In her report to the board Elementary School Principal Betsy Haltinner thanked the district for all the help she received during a recent health issue she had. She said the substitute principal did a great job in her absence and she appreciated the many get well cards she received.
The elementary school celebrated Earth Day by picking up garbage on the school grounds and doing sidewalk chalk art, said Haltinner.
“The campus was bustling,” said Olson of the Earth Day activity.
Haltinner also updated the board on various spring events happening at the school including concerts, Grandparents Day, Field Day and various Field Trips. She’s also been working on several summer programs.
High/Middle School Principal, Marcy Burch told the board that Prom was a success with about 150 attendees. Three bus loads of students went to the prom which was held at an event center in Baldwin. She thanked all the prom organizers and chaperones that helped with the event.
“It went off without a hitch,” she said.
Burch reported that the ACT test scores have come back and the average test score was 21. Last year the average was 20.1 and in 2022 the average was 20. As a reward for upping the test average score, Mr. Popko, Ms. Burch, Mr. Olson and any interested staff members will be dressing “Goth for a day”.
In other business the Glenwood City School Board:
• Swore in incumbents Jodi Main and Chuck Draxler.
• Learned that the district’s health insurance is likely to go by more than 30%.
• Nominated and approved, Dr. Lisa Kaiser as Board President, Chuck Draxler as Vice President and Sally Standaert as Treasurer.
• Accepted the resignation of Social Studies Teacher Rachael Nied, who is moving to the state of Washington.
•Approved the retirement of Tammy Erickson who has been with the district for 27 years as a paraprofessional.
• Learned from Olson that bids for the districts’ improvement projects have been coming in and he’s happy with them.
• Approved the senior class trip will be an overnight stay in Wisconsin Dells.
• Approved $200,000 for a playground revamp.
• Approved hiring Jamie Shaffer as the new elementary principal, she will start July 1.
• Approved moving Hilltopper Hangtime to St. John’s for the summer due to construction work.
