The Owen-Withee School Board held their regular meeting on Monday, July 21. Under Public Participation on Agenda Items, Trent Klemm said he was under the assumption that middle school baseball was going to be on the agenda for discussion. Board president Julie Wendler said baseball was still eight months away. Ellen Petersen said at the last meeting it was up for discussion, but nothing was approved. She also thought it was going to be discussed at this meeting. Board member Dean Schmelzer read from the minutes, which said that the school district would help pay for middle school baseball through Fund 80, but they were not sure at this time what would be funded. It could be coaches, uniforms or travel. Board member Angela Greschner said they were waiting to approve coaches as often they anticipate a lot of kids going out for a sport and then it doesn’t happen. Klemm said he did not want it to be shoved aside and forgotten.
Approval of Claims was removed from the Consent Agenda. Under the Consent Agenda, the board approved the minutes, activity accounts, retirements/resignations of Shanna Hubbard, Greg Weiler and Mara Kreuscher, hiring of Kasey Kopp for MS/HS Language Arts and Johannah Syryczuk for Bookkeeper, academic standards and tree removals related to Xcel Energy putting in new overhead transmission lines.
Schmelzer asked questions about a few of the bills. District Administrator Randy Bergman said he would get answers. He questioned the bill for state track, but that paid for 14 athletes and three coaches for two nights. He asked about a check to Travis Engel, primarily in regard to van reimbursement. It was believed that might have been for gas. He also asked about a payment to River County Co-op, which may have been for the football field. He had a question about a check to Russ Weiler listed as reimbursement for state basketball. The question was why was this just being paid now. The final question was about a plow for the truck. Schmelzer didn’t think the quote was as high as the payment, but it was the correct amount. He also asked if the old plow had been destroyed. The claims were approved as presented.
New Business began with recognition of the boys who went to Nationals for FBLA. FBLA advisor Caleb Green said O-W FBLA has 115 members. He said they are a benchmark chapter and other schools are trying to replicate their success. He went on to recap their achievements at Nationals. He said the boys represented O-W well with three of them getting on stage. He is excited to see what FBLA can do next year. Mason Gay said this was his fourth time to go to the National Leadership Conference and his third time to compete. He said the whole experience was a blast and he was grateful for the opportunity. Jack Wendler said he appreciated the support the board had given over the last two years. Colton Paczkowski said the trip was pretty good and thanked the board for allowing him to go. He enjoyed his experience being around like-minded kids and learning from the judges. Mathew Wilson said he appreciated the trip to California and learning from like-minded kids. Green also thanked the board for their support. He said they can be judges if interested as FBLA is always looking for judges at all levels.
District Administrator Bergman reviewed some budget considerations for the 2025-2026 school year. He said the state did increase special education funding but Title 2 and Title 4 funding was stopped by the Department of Education. This is about $61,500 in funding at O-W. It helped pay for reading specialists, etc. He said that Title 1 funding will be going down about $50,000 because of numbers. He said they fund a year behind so it should go up next year. Bergman said due to the loss in funding for Title 1, a reading teacher was going to have to move to regular curriculum. He felt he spent a lot of time talking to our local state representatives for nothing.
Meal prices will go up slightly. Bergman said no one raised prices during COVID because all meals were free as COVID funds were used to pay for them. He recommended a 10-cent increase each of the next two years. Greschner felt that adult prices were low, but were in line with other schools. Board member Robyn Renderman asked why Kindergarten was separate as other schools don’t do that. Wendler asked about the reimbursement for free and reduced meals. Bergman said the Food Service Fund 50 is always losing money. He had surveyed area schools, many of those that responded are larger than O-W. The board voted to raise breakfast prices to $2.00 for K-12 students and $3.00 for adults. Lunch prices will be raised to $2.50 for Pre-K and Kindergarten, $2.75 for grades 1-5, $3.00 for grades 6-12 and $5.00 for adults.
The agreement with Clark County Community Services was approved. They use rooms for counseling.
The board approved leaving $50,000 in unspent funds from the 2024-2025 school year in Fund Balance and moving the rest to Fund 46 to be used for capital projects. Short-term borrowing was also approved. This line of credit is used to pay bills, if needed, while waiting for state and federal funding.
Under Administrator Reports, Elementary Principal Julie VanArk said that summer school is done. They are working on the handbook. Forward Bank donated money to purchase books for the reading curriculum.
Middle/High School Principal Nate Johnson said that Owen-Withee is one the smaller Wisconsin schools that competed at FBLA Nationals. The teacher training for the reading intervention program will be paid by STARI if they do it outside of work time. CESA 10 will be at the August in-service and help with the reading intervention program.
District Administrator Randy Bergman reported that the plumbing work is done in the boys bathroom and they are waiting on the tile people to finish before the urinals are put back up.
Schmelzer requested use of school vehicles be put on the next agenda. The board went into closed session to discuss the District Administrator evaluation and administrative personnel salaries. They were in closed session for about 1¼ hours and said they had nothing to announce when they came into open.