Boyceville school board approves preliminary budget for 2018-2019

BOARD TO MOVE MEETINGS TO WEDNESDAYS

BOYCEVILLE — The Boyceville board of education unanimously approved a preliminary budget for the forthcoming 2018-2019 year during Monday evening’s regular board meeting held in the IMC at Tiffany Creek Elementary.

District administrator Kevin Sipple asked for and received approval for a 2018-2019 budget with total expenses of $9,027,818 during the June 18 regular board session.

“I am asking for approval of the estimated budget for next year so that we will be able to pay bills on July 1,” Sipple told his 5-member board.

The budget as presented had total revenues of $8,817,935 with $1,722,381 coming from local property taxes and another $5,953,150 from state revenue aid including $5,175,924 from equalization aid.

The district’s expenses for the coming academic year are expected to exceed its revenues by $209,883. Sipple told board members that he was not worried at this time as the district’s state aids have not yet been finalized.

Sipple also announced during his board report, that Boyceville had applied for Wisconsin School Safety Grant on June 4th. The grant, which is through the Wisconsin Department of Justice, was for a total of $87,900. The deadline to apply was June 8.

The superintendent noted, however, that the maximum the district could receive was $60,000 which would be split equally ($20,000) between the high school, middle school and Tiffany Creek Elementary. The district would have to cover the remaining $27,900 in costs from its budget.

Sipple said that if the funds are awarded to Boyceville, they would be used to upgrade and replace the current camera systems used in its three schools, improve door secure access systems and upgrade and replace the key fob system.

Sipple also informed the board that the district’s food service program is slated for an administrative review in 2018-2019. He said that all districts must have a formal review to participate in the USDA Food Distribution Program.

Sipple also indicated that new high school/middle school principal Tyler Moy would begin work on July 1. Moy will be attending an ALICE (active shooter) training and  JMC training sessions in June.

A new board meetings schedule was also unveiled by Superintendent Sipple Monday night.

Starting next month, the board’s monthly meetings will be shifted from Monday nights to Wednesday nights. Work sessions will be held on the first Wednesday of each month with the regular board meetings slated for the third Wednesday of the month. All meetings will begin at 6:00 p.m.

The board also heard reports on the Achievement Gap Reduction (AGR), Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and the district’s special education program.

District reading specialist Holly Sweeney presented the AGR and ESSA (formerly known as No Child Left Behind) reports to the board in the absence elementary principal Nick Kaiser, who was on vacation.

Sweeney informed the board that the district is now in its third year using the Achievement Gap Reduction program which used to be called SAGE.

The goal of the AGR program is to have a lower student to teacher ratio thereby allowing teaching staff to provide more individual instruction time.

The district works to maintain and 18:1 ratio in kindergarten and grades 1 through 3 in order to raise the percentage of students who met reading and math objectives.

This past year’s summary showed 90 percent of Kindergärtners meeting objectives in reading while 88 percent met the math objective. District first graders scored 87 and 90 percent respectively in reading and in math; second grade students were at 85 and 94 percentile in those categories; and the third grade had 92 percent of its students meet reading objectives and 94 percent meet math objectives.

Sweeney also gave a synopsis of the Boyceville Community School District’s  ESSA plan which focuses on four areas – 1. Provide every student access to a well-rounded education that meets their learning needs in an appropriate, healthy and safe environment, 2. Provide professional growth and improvement opportunities for all teachers, principals and other school leaders to further a high quality education for all students, 3. Utilize evidence-based interventions and support services to ensure every student graduates from high school prepared for their college or career plans, and 4. Make progress on closing the achievement gap for all subgroups in language arts and mathematics so all students meet challenging academic standards.

Sweeney said that each district writes plan narratives for each requirement from which data is collected and entered into WISEgrants for public dissemination.

Sipple noted that federal dollars are tied to the ESSA plan which is why the district does the plan. The district receives approximately $130,000 per year through the program.

“Every year it has seemed to go down,” added Sipple. “Except for this year, it has appeared to stabilize.”

Bonnie Barker, Director of Special Education and school psychologist for the district also presented a report to the board.

In her report, Barker stated that the 136 students, kindergarten three-year-olds to grade 12 had received special education services for the 2018-2018 school year, which was one more than the previous year.

That number represented 18.50 percent of Boyceville’s total student population. Barker noted that Boyceville’s number is higher than the state average of 15 to 16 percent.

“The numbers are high,” said Barker, “Which means that we are busy.”

During the June meeting, the board accepted generous donations of $20,000 from the Mayo Clinic Health System Hometown Grant and $1,600 from the United Way of Dunn County.

The Mayo grant will be used for heart-mind well being to teach transformational life skills to middle and high school students while the United Way of Dunn County gift will go toward the district’s Resiliency Project.

“This will give us the ability to do some more things with middle school and high school students in the areas of mental health and chemical use,” stated Sipple.

In other business, the board approved:

• The hiring of Brian Roemhild as the middle school football and middle school basketball coach.

• The resignations of technology paraprofessional Mary Byrne and part-time TCE library aide Holly Coombs. Both positions will be posted internally.

• The hiring of Lisa Tireman as a full-time paraprofessional in the special education area. Tireman began working as a part-time para in the middle of this past school year.

The board’s next meeting will be Wednesday, July 18th in the TCE IMC (library).