The Owen-Withee School Board held their regular meeting on Monday, July 15, 2024. The consent agenda was approved with the exception of hiring a head baseball coach for the co-op. This included approving minutes, payment of bills, activity accounts, food service prices remaining the same for the upcoming school year, the resignations/retirements of Randi Rondorf, CJ Jones-Bilal, and Sara Koller, and the hiring of Citory Turner for High School Special Education.

The Head Baseball Coach was tabled to a closed session to be held at a special meeting on Monday, July 22. Board member Dean Schmelzer thought that O-W’s Pete Devine was going to be the head coach. Board member Todd Nelson was also confused as to what had occurred with the potential hiring of Dan Abramczak as head coach. Board member Robyn Renderman said Abramczak had no experience. Middle/High School Principal Nate Johnson said that former district administrator Scott Winch had told him to open it up to all applicants. Nelson thought there was going to be co-head coaches. When Johnson was asked about hiring Abramczak, he said the interview committee felt he would be the best person to bring the two communities/programs together and help build the two schools back to their own separate teams. The current co-op agreement is for two years.

FBLA student Paris Ackerman spoke about her experience at national competition. She competed in two events, but didn’t make it to the finals. Ackerman said it was very scary to go before the judges. She also felt that the networking opportunities were amazing and that it was a once in a lifetime experience. The workshops were good and she got to meet people from other states and other countries. Ackerman said, “Overall, it was a great experience.” She said FBLA has given her a lot of first time experiences. Her advisor, Caleb Green, said there were 18,000 people at national this year. The top 16 in each category get to go to finals. Owen-Withee got 183½ out of 200 points, putting them only 10 points behind first place. A lot of the other schools that attend are bigger than O-W or they are charter schools.

Decreasing the HRA contribution was next on the agenda. The current contribution is $2,000 for a single person and $3,500 for a family. A $500 decrease would save the district $42,000 and a $250 decrease would save the district $29,000. It was suggested that a partial contribution could be made in October, with the rest done in December, depending on the results of the referendum. Schmelzer suggested rather than transferring all of their leftover funds to Fund 46 that they could use some of that money to help pay for the HRA. District Administrator Randy Bergman said they would have to transfer it to Fund Balance. Schmelzer said they could take maintenance expense from Fund 46 to help with the deficit. No changes will be made at this time. Renderman asked what benefit they would replace it with if it was taken away. She wondered if the negotiations committee needed to meet with staff more often.

Both the educator scholarships with Abbotsford, Colby, and Spencer and the Clark County Community Services Agreement were approved. Scholarship recipients are required to take a job in the school that offers the scholarship, if an opening is available. Otherwise, they have to accept an available opening in one of the other schools. The use agreement provides Clark County Community Services with a space in the building to counsel students. Short-term borrowing was also approved for the school year. This allows the district to short-term borrow needed funds while they are waiting for state aid payments.

The Forward Center/FEMA building was discussed. Nelson said that the first time it was opened for a storm 15-20 people showed up, the second time the storm was already over before it was opened, and the third time, even though 70 mph winds were predicted, it didn’t get opened at all. He thinks it is a dumb idea to only open it when there is a tornado warning, that the doors are being opened far too late. Bergman said that Clark County is working on how to open the building and testing will be done to make sure it works. Schmelzer said that Channel 13 was predicting the storm two hours in advance, so the doors should have been opened then. Bergman said Head Custodian Brett Weber put someone in charge of making sure the doors between the Center and the school are locked. Nelson said it could be put on a website calendar when the Center is in use, this calendar could be live. He also suggested that it be put on the website so people know that they can get a key fob that will open the door for use when approved. The building will be locked by maintenance staff every night and they will go forward with other decisions after the county completes its test. Schmelzer said that staff should be reminded that doors should be locked when they leave. Custodian Mike Person said they do checks, but some doors are keyed open and they don’t know who is doing it. Bergman said that Market and Johnson is coming to look at the issues with drainage on the roof and having it re-done. He also spoke with Houtari Construction about the issues and they are going to make a drip cap so water doesn’t leak in the door. He said the architect needs to be held accountable for the issues, that the flashing doesn’t come down far enough. He also felt that it could be redone so the drains would run into the sewer lines.

Under Administrator Reports, Elementary Principal Julie VanArk said it was a slow time right now. The Raptors group sponsored by the Withee Public Library was a success. They had 30 students visit the Bookmobile when it visited the Owen and Withee parks for the first time. They were part of the Owen parade to promote the reading program.

Middle/High School Principal Nate Johnson said they currently have no applicants for middle school special education and are hoping to fill the middle/high school science/math position. CESA 10 will be doing an AI (artificial intelligence) presentation for staff. They are continuing to work with CESA 10 to implement EMLSS, which will help improve outcomes for students with disabilities.

District Administrator Randy Bergman gave a preliminary look at the budget for 2024-2025. He said that state aid will be up $291,000 for next year. If the board plans to try for another referendum, the language needs to be in place by August 27 to get on the November ballot. The three year average number of students for purposes of the revenue limit worksheet is 436. The value of each student is approximately $11,400. He is looking at $500,000 for the potential referendum amount. He feels the mill rate will go down from last year. He is working with Baird on a forecast model for the district. With this referendum amount, the district would have to start using fund balance dollars by the 2027-2028 school year. There isn’t much more to cut in a district this small. A special meeting will be held on July 22 to discuss the referendum.

After the regular business of the meeting, the board met with School District of Greenwood board and administration to talk about ways the districts can work together. That story will be next week’s edition.