Glenwood City school board takes final step to approve annual budget

By Cara L. Dempski

GLENWOOD CITY — The Glenwood school board took the final step toward approving the 2016-17 budget by voting to approve the $2,392,917 budget proposed during the district’s September budget hearing and annual meeting.

The move came on the heels of the district receiving notification of the proposed state aid and equalized value for the 2016-17 academic year.

The board also approved superintendent Tim Johnson’s recommendation of an additional levy of $145,000.

“This will allow us to keep the mill rate level, and give us extra money to spend down the debt balance,” Johnson told the assembled board members.

Johnson also told the board he had spoken with representatives from Edward Jones regarding proposed changes for the Russell Meyer scholarship fund and the Topper Foundation. The district will look into diversifying the investment of approximately $40,000 worth of the nearly $170,000 currently in the scholarship fun.

Additionally, the financial representatives from Edward Jones recommended moving money from the Topper Foundation account at Hiawatha National Bank into an Edward Jones account. While the $55,000 in the account at Hiawatha has a .04 rate of interest, the recommendation was made that some of that money be moved to an Edward Jones account that has increased a total of 7.62 percent since 2002.

Finally, Johnson reported on the final few items that need to fall into place for the referendum work to be completed in the school buildings. This includes setting up access control locks on the front entry of the school, and work to fix a few minor issues with the new HVAC system.

The HVAC system will eventually be set to maintain temperatures between 69 and 74 degrees in each room of the building. There is a computer program that allows administrators and maintenance to monitor the temperatures in each room of the building, and alerts users to system issues.

“It’s not perfect,” Johnson said of the system, “but it’s getting there. There needs to be a few tweaks.”

Athletic Director and Director of Special Education Nicole Brite provided several updates during the meeting.

Brite started by congratulating the fall sports teams on successful seasons, and made note of the girls’ cross country team earning a trip to the state meet in Wisconsin Rapids on October 29 after taking first at the Durand sectional on October 22.

Brite also provided the board with an update on students who have completed state testing. She said students in the third through eighth grade appear to be on par with local counterparts when it comes to reading and math skills. Brite also said the Glenwood City schools had an ACT composite score of 20.8 for the first year 100 percent of students were required to take the exam. This ranks in the middle of the DSC for scores.

Elementary principal Betsy Haltinner gave a brief rundown of recent events at the elementary school, including the school being awarded a check from Walmart as part of the company’s safe miles program.

Haltinner stated she and her elementary staff have set a school learning objective of increasing 15 to 18 percent of the students in the school who fall into the average achievement range into the advanced achievement range during the school year. She explained during the meeting this will require each elementary instructor to identify the top four “average” students in each classroom and work to improve those students’ scores to above the 75th percentile in achievement.

Haltinner also said the school had an 87 percent attendance rate for parent teacher conferences held October 13. This amounts to visits from the families of 297 students in the elementary school.

Middle and high school principal Patrick Gretzlock piggybacked off Haltinner’s report about parent teacher conferences with news that nearly 25 percent of parents in the middle and high schools attend conferences.

Gretzlock stated there were 332 conferences out of a potential 1320 in the high school, which averaged to 16 conferences per teacher. There were 150 conferences of a potential 650 in the middle school, which averaged to 25 conferences per teacher.

Gretzlock also joined several teachers at a recent workshop on non-violent interventions for use in schools. The teachers who went with him learned appropriate verbal and physical interventions for students experiencing severe behavioral issues.

In other business, the board:

• Approved hiring Nicole Miller as an assistant high school track coach.

• Approved the minutes from the October 10 meeting.

• Approved the accounts payable report for September.

• Heard a report from the personnel committee indicating progress on identifying wants and needs for the district compensation model, and learned that the committee is beginning to solidify timelines for future meetings.

• Scheduled future meetings for November 14, November 28, December 5, and December 12.