Colfax school district annual meeting reviews $10.4 million budget
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — At the Colfax school district’s annual meeting, electors in the school district reviewed a $10.4 million budget for 2024-2025 and a projected mill rate of $5.71 per $1,000 of property value.
The Colfax school district’s annual meeting on August 19 was, for all intents and purposes, completely routine.
In addition to members of the Board of Education and school district administrators, there were three school district residents in the audience: one resident of the Village of Colfax, the Colfax Messenger reporter and the school district’s finance manager.
The projected revenue budget for 2024-2025 is $10,471,084, compared to $10,447,299 last year, representing an increase of $23,785.
The projected expenditure budget for 2024-2025 is $10,417,805, compared to $10,349,995 last year, representing an increase of $67,810.
The proposed property tax levy for 2024-2025 is $3,428,950, compared to $3,124,420 last year, representing an increase of $304,530.
The ending balances as of June 30, 2024, for the school district’s funds are as follows:
• Fund 10 — $1,873,093.05
• Fund 21 (special revenue) — $219,712.35.
• Fund 27 (special education) — zero. (The special education fund must always be zero at the end of the school year.) In 2023-2024, the Colfax school district received $570,733.73 in revenue for special education and used $1,409,621.29 from the general fund.
• Fund 38 (non-referendum debt; tennis courts) — $6,360.86.
• Fund 39 (referendum debt) — $115,657.55.
• Fund 46 (capital improvements) — $344,357.27.
• Fund 50 (food service) — $122,861,83. The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction requires school districts to maintain three months of operating expenses in the food service fund, which is $100,000 for Colfax.
The 2024-2025 budget is all a projection until the school district finds out what the third Friday in September pupil count is and how much state aid will be received on October 15, said William C. Yingst Jr., district administrator.
The school district also has established a Fund 80, which currently has fund balance of zero, he said.
Fund 80 is the community service fund and will include money for programming that is not required, such as junior kindergarten, daycare and middle school athletics, Yingst said.
Mill rate
The projected mill rate for the 2024-2025 school year is $5.71 per $1,000 of property value, Yingst said.
The actual mill rate will be calculated after the school district finds out how much state aid will be received, he said.
Last year’s mill rate was $5.46 per $1,000 of property value.
In 2022-2023, the mill rate was $5.98 per $1,000 of property value.
The equalized value for the school district in the fall of 2023 was $571,858,944, which represented an increase of $100,873,128 over the 2022 equalized value of $470,985,816.
The equalized value in 2021 was $419,176,180, which was more than $150 million less than in 2023.
Robert W. Baird, the financial services company, is predicting a 7.69 percent increase in the equalized value over 2023, Yingst said.
Readers are reminded that, in general, when the equalized value increases, the mill rate decreases.
Resolutions
The following resolutions were approved at the school district’s annual meeting:
• Directing the school district president to provide for the prosecution or defense of any action or proceeding in which the school district is interested.
• Directing the school district to furnish hot lunches to any and all pupils attending any of the schools in the district at such cost set by the school board and that the school board is authorized to pay any deficiency which results from the lunch program from the general fund.
• Authorizing the school board to sell any and all personal property belonging to the school district no longer used or needed for school purposes and authorizing the school board to sell such property by private sale or auction.
• Authorizing school board salaries of $95 per meeting for all school board members; $1,050 per year for the board president and district clerk; $700 per year for the school board directors; mileage for attending meetings in the district, and if members are required to travel outside of the school district that they be paid up to the Internal Revenue Service accepted mileage rate plus actual and necessary additional travel expenses; the salaries shall be paid paid for one year starting on April 22, 2024; each school board member will receive $200 per day, less payroll taxes, to attend the state school board convention.
• Levy a school tax on all of the taxable property in the School District of Colfax in Dunn County and Chippewa County of $3,428,950, with the understanding that adjustments will be made in October following the September membership count.
• Directing the school board to borrow money short term, as needed, to meet the immediate expenses of operating and maintaining public instruction in the school district until the 2025-2026 annual meeting.
• Approved changing the following school board meeting dates from the third Monday of each month to the fourth Monday in October due to the October 15 equalized aid date and for setting the tax levy proposed; changing the November meeting to the second Monday of the month; changing the March school board meeting to the second Monday of the month; changing the April board meeting to the fourth Monday of the month to align with newly elected board members; changing the July meeting to the second Monday of the month; setting the annual meeting date to the third Monday in August; setting the start time for all regular board meetings at 6 p.m.
Regular meeting
The regular monthly meeting of the Colfax Board of Education followed the annual meeting.
During the meeting, the Colfax school board:
• Learned that the first cross country meet will be on Thursday, August 29, at St. Croix Falls.
• Learned that students will be in attendance August 27 and August 28 for welcome back orientation and team building. The first official day of school is September 3.
• Learned that fall school pictures will be taken on Wednesday, September 4, for all K-12 students. Picture retakes are scheduled on October 16.
• Received a reminder that this will be the eighth year Colfax High School will be offering Distance Learning classes, and classes will include Psychology, Sociology, American Sign Language I and II, Speech and Economics.
• Learned that the Colfax Elementary summer school program had 190 students enrolled in classes throughout the two weeks of summer school.
• Learned that this was the eleventh year that Colfax participated in the Summer Saunters program. There were 88 students signed up this year for the program.
• Learned that the Colfax school district has 137 special education students. All together, 20 percent of Colfax students, district wide, have Individualized Education Plans (IEPs). The school district also has 11 students on 504 accommodation plans (a document outlining the accommodations that a student with a disability must have to access education programs and activities.)
• Learned that Little Vikes JK Daycare will open officially on August 27 and August 28. The school district currently has 12 students registered to attend.
• Received a reminder that the school district does have extra school supplies for families who are unable to purchase them. Families can contact school counselors for assistance or let their child’s teacher know they need supplies. Families also are encouraged to complete the free and reduced meal plan application. Holly Berge can assist in the process if there are questions.
• Learned that all staff will receive a brief training in understanding and responding to students experiencing homelessness, barriers to education related to language acquisition, child abuse and neglect reporting,
• Learned that during the 2023 summer school session, there were 56 students transported who lived between two miles and five miles from school and 327 who lived more than five miles from school.
• Learned that in the 2023-2024 school year, there were 105 students transported who lived zero to two miles from school in the “hazardous” zone, which includes railroad tracks, the Red Cedar River, 18 Mile Creek and bridges; there were 135 students who lived two to five miles from school; there were 168 students who lived from five to eight miles from school; there were 117 students who lived eight to 12 miles from school; there were 45 students who lived more than 12 miles from school. All together, there were 570 students transported.
• Learned that the open enrollment rates for the 2024-2025 school year are $8,962 per child for regular education and $13,814 per child for special education.
• Learned that the school district had received $235.91 in exempt computer aid for 2024.
• Learned that the school district received $62,103 for the E-rate program last year, which is the Schools and Libraries Program of the Universal Service Fund.
• Approved adding a student activity account for the Class of 2028.
• Approved NEOLA policy 2264 related to the school district’s non-discrimination policy. The policy is 99.9 percent procedural and does not change what is actually done, Yingst said.
Closed session
Following a closed session, the Colfax Board of Education:
• Accepted the resignation of Felisha Glomski as the volleyball coach.
• Approved hiring Teagan Blom as the volleyball coach.
• Approved hiring the following as teacher aides: Meghan Keller, Heather Dicks, Brittany Sonnenberg and Hayliemay Turner.
• Approved Emily Krause as the forensics advisor.
• Approved Amanda Kalscheur as the FCCLA advisor.
• Approved Tasha Bjork as the yearbook advisor.
• Approved Alyssa Saintey as the middle school student council advisor.
• Approved Amanda Kalscheur and Jesselyn Julson as the high school student council advisors.
• Approved Tiffany Schaffner as the FFA advisor.
