Glenwood City School Board takes action on past compensation discrepancies
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By Renee Bettendorf
GLENWOOD CITY-After an hour long discussion at their meeting held on Monday evening the Glenwood City school board took action on matters concerning past compensation, process and procedure deficiencies, which has been a topic of discussion for them since November.
District administrator Patrick Olson presented the board with a four part agenda item that addressed: past violations of the law in regards to how staff were paid; whether or not coaches who had their seasons cancelled by the Covid pandemic should be compensated and if other compensation discrepancies should be further investigated.
“This process has not been easy,” said Olson.
Two parts of the agenda item were approved, one part was not approved and one was deemed not necessary to approve. Board members Sally Standaart, Steve Davis and Tony Mielzarek were absent from the meeting.
First the board unanimously approved to spend about $145,000 to compensate 11 staff members who are currently employed at the district and were not paid properly under former district administrator Tim Johnson. Second, they voted to compensate three student workers who were also not paid correctly at a cost of approximately $800. The improper way these employees were paid is a violation of Wisconsin state statute 118.22, said Olson.
Funds the district received from an insurance claim due to fraud committed by Johnson will be used for the payments.
A third item that concerned a back pay request for spring of 2020 district coaches, was unanimously voted down. Several board members noted that this was decided by the board five years ago and they were not interested in changing that decision.
Lastly, the board heard from Olson and math and language arts teacher Matthew Schutz about a number of complicated past compensation plans and practices. And they learned that some veteran teaching staff members feel that if some staff are being compensated for past discrepancies in pay then perhaps they should be too.
“We can go down 50 rabbit holes,” said Olson.
Schultz, Olson and the board agreed that there are errors with how staff moved through the old compensation models. In the end the board decided that since these other pay discrepancies happened after staff signed contracts and the law does not appear to have been broken and it would be very difficult to prove and determine the amount of compensation that was lost out on, no action needed to be taken.
The board directed Olson to bring any more compensation discrepancies to them if a law was broken and they would act on them at that time.
Reports
Earlier in the meeting the board heard reports from director of student services Erin Spaeth and elementary school principal Jamie Shaffer. Middle/high school principal Marcy Burch was absent from the meeting.
In her report to the board Spaeth spoke about Hilltopper Hangtime attendance. She said that on a recent early release day 37 students participated in Hilltopper Hangtime and on the February 17 teacher inservice day 27 participated.
She also gave a run down on a number of topics staff discussed during their inservice including; analyzing student progress data to identify trends, evaluate intervention effectiveness and enhance data driven decision-making.
Spaeth finished up her report with some health office visit numbers. She said that so far this school year there have been 1,760 visits to the health office. That works out to an average of 16.5 visits per day.
“We have a lot of illnesses happening this year,” said Spaeth.
Shaffer updated the board on various tests and assessments that students have completed in reading and about upcoming math assessments. She also told the board about a new parent communication newsletter that she recently started writing and sending out and some guidelines that have been developed to help substitute teachers with classroom management.
In other business the Glenwood City school board:
• Approved the purchase of an outdoor storage container at a cost of $4,357.
• Approved the retirement of guidance counselor Shelly Laffin after 31.5 years at the district.
• Approved the retirement of elementary teacher Amy Lenz after 31 years at the district.
• Approved Michael Garrison as high school track assistant coach.
• Approved Rick Theune and Peyton Theune as volunteer baseball coaches.
• Approved the 2025/2026 school calendar.
• Approved the purchase of new furniture and other equipment to make the board room a more multi functional space at a cost of approximately $5,500.
