May 9, 2022 at 6:00 PM - Regular Meeting

Description:   

Description:  A motion will be necessary to approve the agenda as presented (or) with changes as recommended.

Description:  Individuals may use this time to comment on any topic. A copy of Board Policy 187 —Public Participation at Board Meetings is enclosed for your reference. Each speaker will be allowed 3 minutes to speak for a total of  30 minutes.  .  Emailed comments will be shared and reviewed by all the board members but will not be read out loud.

Description:  Members of the WTA will provide an update to the Board from the Teachers.

Description:  Marissa Loether and Isabelle Hahn are the student representative from the high school and will be present to report to the board on what is occurring at the high school.

Description:  Attached please find the committee assignments as recommended by Board President, Joan Ensign.  Ms. Ensign will formally present and discuss these recommendations with the Board on Monday evening. 

 

Description:  The administration will provide a brief report on the status of Covid incidents in our school and community.

Description:  The HR Committee and Administration met with the WTA Bargaining Team on April 19th for purposes of negotiations on base wages.  A Tentative Agreement was reached by the parties and is being forwarded to the Board for consideration.  The WTA membership has voted to accept this tentative agreement, and upon approval by the Board, the agreement will be finalized.  The associated cost is detailed within the attachments for agenda item XI.A.3.

Description:  The attachments detail costing estimates for the supplemental pay system for teachers, compensation system advancement for employees within a wage matrix, and advancing non-union employee groups' wages by 4.7%.

The HR Committee is recommending this compensation plan to the full Board for consideration.  If approved, it will go into place beginning on July 1, 2022 -- the start of our new fiscal year.

Description:  Health insurance - No change; final year of the five-year agreement with Dean Health Plan.  The insurance committee will begin a review and discussions of plan design and associated costs for the 23/24 school year.

Dental insurance - No change;  We are still gathering information about the dental plan usage with the additional benefits that we added for this school year.  June, July, August and September are four of the five highest claims months (plus January). Our current balance is $457,488 but those five months all have historically been deficit spending months.  During the 23/24 school year, the insurance committee will need to review new claims information to determine if additional benefits or changes in rates would be appropriate.

Vision insurance - 7.9% increase; Vision insurance is a voluntary offering and our insurance carrier (Delta Vision) offered a renewal at an increased rate due to our past 24 months of plan usage.

These insurance details have been reviewed by the HR Committee and are being recommended to the full Board for consideration.

Description:  The attached textbook requests include new texts for Management and Ethics and Multicultural Literature, digital music subscriptions for Middle School general music and High School vocal music, and two large cost items.  The large cost items are new resources for the early primary grades to support student acquisition of foundational reading skills and a renewal of Go Math, which is our mathematics resource for the Intermediate and Middle Schools.

The Curriculum Committee has reviewed these textbooks and instructional material requests and is forwarding them on to the full Board for consideration.

Description:  The Curriculum Committee met with Jason McConnell and Sandra Meinholz about the Digital Media and Marketing Classes and advertising process.  The students in these classes will develop the marketing materials/options for advertising, will work to create the digital campaigns, and the administration will work with the businesses and sponsors on the agreements, payments, and allocation of funds, etc.  The administration will discuss this topic in more detail at the Board Meeting on Monday to provide an overview of the process, and answer any questions.  

Description:  The purpose of this agenda item is to review policy 851, advertising in schools. Attached please find a revised policy 851. These revisions have added advertising restrictions. These advertising restrictions are similar to the policies that the WASB provided the district as examples, and that were reviewed at the Policy Committee Meeting. Our district's attorney is currently researching the topic of advertising restrictions and religious organizations. The revised policy does not include any information about religious organizations, pending a legal opinion. The administration is requesting a policy revision to provide guidelines surrounding future advertising in schools. The facility committee agenda item includes two specific examples of advertising that the administration was requesting school board feedback on.

Description:  Attached please find the Minutes of the Facility Committee meeting on May 3rd.

Description:  The School Board approved the 2022-2023 Capital Maintenance Projects at the March school board meeting. Attached please find requested revisions to the 2022-2023 projects. These revisions are requested based on a continual analysis of the priorities for the 2022-2023 school year. The revised grand total matches the annual budgetary cost for capital projects. The facility committee is recommending approval on a 3:0 motion.

Description:  The school board has approved a request to have advertising on the softball outfield fence. The administration has approved several advertisements but have requested the Facility Committee's feedback on two potential advertisements. The advertisement for The Lone Girl has been updated to reflect the discussion with the facility committee. The administration also requested a review of policy language regarding this topic, and that issue was discussed at the Policy Committee Meeting and is part of the Board Meeting agenda items on Monday. (Previous Agenda Item)

Description:  Administration will share the results from the Bethel Circle request for proposal process for two additional office spaces. We received responses back from Vogel Brothers, Findorff, and CG Schmidt. In addition, the district will contract with our existing/approved vendors for HVAC, electrical, fire alarm, and carpeting. The cost for this project has been updated in the revised capital projects list. The facility committee is recommending approval of the Findorff proposal, on a 3:0 motion. The facility committee meeting packet includes the remainder of the proposals that were received.

Description:  The purpose of this agenda item is to review the first draft of the budget for the 22-23 school year. I have attached the first draft of the budget for your review. Please note that the first draft of the budget is based on the following:
1. The $0/student increase in the per pupil categorical aid, with a $0/student increase in the revenue limit formula
2. An increase in the percentage of State Special Education Categorical Aid to ~30%
3. The personnel cost line includes an inflationary salary increase of 4.7%, implementation of the teacher and classified staff compensation systems, a 0% increase in dental insurance rates, and a 0% increase for health insurance rates
4. The capital maintenance projects are funded from Fund 41
5. The first draft includes an increase of 9.0 FTE, as outlined on page 13 of the document.
6. The debt service fund includes a debt service repayment in order to keep the district tax rate consistent.
7. All of the remaining budget requests have been placed on hold at this time

The second draft of the budget in June will include:
1. Grant allocations, if available
2. Staffing updates based on additional schedule changes, reallocation proposals or new positions
3. Updates to the Food Service budget (Fund 50), and other budgets as a result of School Board approved student fees
4. Updates to the gift fund (Fund 21)
5. Updates to the community service fund (Fund 80)
6. Updates to building/department revenue accounts and corresponding expense accounts

Please let me know if you have any questions on the first draft of the budget. The budget committee is recommending approval of the first draft of the budget on a 3:0 motion.

UPDATE AS OF MAY 4, 2022:
The district was notified on May 3rd about the final federal funding that is available under the program called Esser 3. Our original allocation under Esser 3 was $558,025. Our new allocation under Esser 3 is $3,711,856. Additional funding was provided to increase the allocation to a minimum of $578/student (that gave us $1,930,747) and for in-person hours of instruction $1,218,988. Administration will work with the budget committee for the 2nd draft of the budget to reflect a plan for the use of these additional federal funds.

Description:  Attached please find the proposed student fees for the 2022-2023 school year. Please note that the school fee increase is related to an effort to increase the number of bulk supplies purchased by the district and to reduce the number of supply items that parents are being asked to purchase for the start of the school year. The budget committee is recommending approval on a 3:0 motion. The food service fees are based on the (Version B) budget that was presented to the budget committee. The budget committee is recommending approval of the Version B budget, which slightly increases the food service fees. Board members can view both versions of the budget in the budget committee meeting packet.

Description:  Attached please find the proposed facility use fees for the 2022-2023 school year. The budget committee requested a revision to increase the maintenance costs by $5/category and this attachment includes those revisions. The budget committee is recommending approval on a 3:0 motion.

Description:  Attached please find a Memorandum of Understanding for a School Resource Officer. The district payment toward the school resource officer is a Fund 80 payment. The agreement calls for the school district to pay 50% of the costs of this program, while the Waunakee Police Department pays the remaining 50%. Administration is recommending approval of the memorandum of understanding. The budget committee is recommending approval on a 3:0 motion.

Description:  Attached please find a report from the district's audit firm on the student counts for the 2021-2022 school year. Districts are "randomly" selected every 4 years to complete a student count audit. No changes were made to the student counts reported by the district. The budget committee is recommending approval on a 3:0 motion.

Description:  The purpose of this agenda item is to review potential expenditures related to the new district and high school rebranding. Attached please find a document that identifies these potential expenditures. The document is organized by priority and category. Priority A is short term recommendations, while Priority B & C are longer term recommendations. The funding for these potential expenditures will come from a combination of donated funds, building/department budgets and a district budget. Administration is recommending allocating $25,000 from end of the year funds to be designated toward rebranding expenditures. The budget committee is recommending approval on a 3:0 motion.

Description:  The community survey deadline has passed. Our special board meeting on May 23rd will include a thorough review of the community survey results. At a high level, 51% of respondents prefer a new middle school at the Heritage site, while 20% support either pathway. 59% support rebuilding and replacing Heritage Elementary School, while 18% support either option. The operational referendum questions had a yes support ranging from 62-80%. 85% indicated definitely yes or probably yes to supporting the funding for the referendum questions.

Our architectural firm, EUA, will be meeting with administration and staff at both Heritage and the Middle School to seek feedback on the programs for the new schools. This feedback is essential prior to the end of the 21-22 school year. The school programs and associated budgets will be presented to the school board at the special meeting scheduled in June.

EUA and Vogel Brothers have been working together to create a draft timeline for a potential November referendum. This timeline will be shared at the May 23rd meeting. The timeline will include a recommendation to begin the design on a new Heritage Elementary School prior to November 2022. This recommendation can be accomplished through a reimbursement resolution that provides an upfront investment by the district that can be reimbursed from referendum funding. This reimbursement resolution process was a part of the 2014 referendum for Prairie Elementary School.

Description:  Anne Blackburn (Communications Specialist) and Rick Franz (Director of IT) will provide the Board with a preview of the new format for the website, and share with the Board the new processes for management of the content.  The goal is to launch the new website in Mid-June.

Description:  Dane County School Consortium--Youth Apprenticeship/Mentor Appreciation Program

Description:  Attached in the "extras" section of BoardBook, please find a list of the accounts payable payments issued during the month of April 2022.

Description:  Attached you will find the 2021-22 Budget Status report as of April 30, 2022, and the Cash Reconciliation report for March 2022.

Please contact Allie Dye at alexandradye@waunakee.k12.wi.us if you have questions on any of these reports.

Description:  The purpose of this agenda item is for the Board to approve the allocation of the dollars out of this scholarship fund, per the agreement with the donors of these awards.

Description:  The purpose of this agenda item is to request school board action on the open enrollment applications received for the 2022-2023 school year. As a reminder, state law requires the school board to identify the number of available open enrollment spaces at the January 2022 meeting. Attached please find a memorandum regarding these applications, a list of applications into our district, and a list of applications out of our district. We are recommending approval of all of the open enrollment out applications and the recommendations for the open enrollment in requests are aligned with the school board decision from January 2022.

Description:  May 23, 2022 - Referendum Survey Review
June 27, 2022 - Additional Meeting
July 25, 2022 - Additional Meeting
August 22, 2022 - Additional Meeting.