Elk Mound school board approves $3.3 million property tax levy
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
ELK MOUND — The Elk Mound Board of Education has approve a total property tax levy for the 2024-2025 school year of $3,348,221.
The property tax levy approved at the October 28 school board meeting compares to a total property tax levy for last year of $3,090,949, representing an increase of $257,272.
The debt service levy portion of the total tax levy is $569,911, said Eric Wright, district administrator.
The debt service levy for the 2024-2025 school year compares to a debt service levy last of $815,000, representing a decrease of $245,089.
Property value in the school district has increased by 8 percent, and over the last two years, property values have increased by 20 percent, Wright said.
In the last nine years, property values in the school district have gone from $281 million to $627 million, he noted,
When the property values in a school district increase, the amount of state aid received by the school district decreases, Wright said.
Regarding the number of full-time-equivalency students (FTEs), the resident number of students has decreased, but the number of students open enrolling into the district has increased, he said.
Elk Mound has 975 resident students, while 246 students have open enrolled into the district and 57 have open enrolled out of the district, Wright said.
By way of comparison, the Colfax school district has 716 students. All together, 69 students are open enrolling into the district and 114 students open enrolling out.
The Colfax school district is losing revenue (a little over $400,000) due to more students enrolling out of the district than open enrolling in, while the Elk Mound school district will be gaining revenue because there are more students open enrolling into the district than there are students open enrolling out.
The student’s home district receives one-third of the state aid for the students open enrolling out, and the district where the students have open enrolled in receive two-thirds of the state aid for that student.
When parents enroll their students in private schools and qualify for private-school vouchers, the school district loses that amount from the district’s state aids, Wright noted.
Scheels
Scheels Sporting Goods has contacted the Elk Mound school district about sponsoring the Elk Mound school district, Wright said.
The Board of Education reviewed the district’s policy about sponsorships, and the sponsorship money from Scheels could be used to offset the cost of live-streaming sporting events, he said.
The Elk Mound school district is just starting the process with Scheels, and there could be other businesses that may be interested in being sponsors, too, Wright said.
Other business
In other business, the Elk Mound Board of Education:
• Learned that the annual Turkey Trot at Mound View Elementary will be held on Friday, November 22.
• Received a reminder that the annual Veterans’ Day program will be held in the Elk Mound High School gymnasium at 2:15 p.m. Monday, November 11.
• Learned that the Dunn-St. Croix Conference sports summit will be held in Elk Mound on November 6, and 150 student athletes are expected to attend.
• Reviewed the goals for all three schools in the district. Data retreats are conducted at each building to determine what needs to be improved or adjusted.
• Discussed the Cloverbelt Conference activities for the 2025-2026 school year. This year will be Elk Mound’s last year of participating in the Dunn-St. Croix Conference.
Closed session
Following a closed session, the Elk Mound school board:
• Approved hiring Karen Wik as a part-time speech and language teacher.
• Took no action on the agenda item to consider the financial, medical, social, personal or disciplinary data of a specific person pursuant to Wisconsin state statute 19.85(1)(f)(c).
The Elk Mound Board of Education meets next on November 18.
