Officer elections, committee appointments made
By Tracy Ouellette
Editor
Monday night’s Board of Education meeting of the East Troy Community School District saw the swearing in of it’s two newest members – Chris Smith and Steve Lambrechts – the election of new officers and committee appointments.
Superintendent Chris Hibner thanked outgoing board members Murray Mitten and Mike Zei for their service to the district and presented them with plaques of appreciation. Zei was unable to attend the meeting, but Mitten accepted his plaque and spoke briefly about his time on the board, laughing at one point and saying he “didn’t know what he was getting into” when he ran.
After Lambrechts and Smith were sworn in the board moved to the election of the officers where Ted Zess accepted the position of president, Dawn Buccholtz became vice-president, Smith is the clerk and Martha Bresler is the treasurer. Lambrechts was voted in as the CESA representative, Zess is the WASB delegate and Smith is the WASB alternate.
One of the matters the board discussed was the funding for the district’s 1:1 kid to iPad/Chromebook initiative. Business Administrator Kathy Zwirgzdas presented the board with 16 different options to fund the program, which will require about $350,400 in start up costs. The board voted to fund the initial $92,460 to upgrade the buildings to accommodate the added technology and get the devices into the teachers hands for the 2014-15 school year in March.
The cost to have devices in every child’s hands by the 2015-16 school year is an addition $250,000 or so. At the time board members approved the program they requested Hibner come back to them with options on how to fund the major part of the initiative.
Zwirgzdas presented the board with the four options – going to referendum, taking the money from the fund balance (she warned the board it could cause the balance to drop below the desired 15 percent), taking out a loan, which she didn’t recommend or adjusting the budge and cut costs to pay for the program.
Then she presented the board with the 16 different options on how to keep the program running in the schools and provide for replacement of the devices every four years.
The options all include a Technology Fee to be paid by the students. The fees range from $15 to $50 a year and there are options that include reduced fees for children receiving reduced lunch fees and no Technology Fees for students receiving free lunch.
Zwirgzdas told the board she knew she was giving them a lot of information and didn’t expect an answer from them that night, but to look over the information and have her put the item on a later agenda.
Working referendum meeting
Before Monday night’s regular board meeting, the board met in special session for another working referendum update from the architect.
The board was shown revised options based on the feedback from the staff at the schools and given pricing for the individual options, which range from $21 million to nearly $35 million depending on which option was chosen. The most expensive options (D) involved the construction of a new elementary school on the Prairie View Elementary School grounds, renovating Doubek Elementary and demolishing Chester Byrnes. The cost of that was estimated to be between $28 to $35 million.
The cheapest option (A) calls for the demolition of Chester Byrnes, renovations at Doubek and additional classrooms added on at Prairie View.
All the options presented included $11 to $12 million in renovations to the High School, including new classroom space and updating to the building.
Because the district’s outstanding debt drops off in 2018, the district can borrow up to $20 million right now for the needed improvements with no impact on the taxpayers. Should the district go to referendum for more than that, there would be an increase in the school tax.
Hibner told the board the next step was to bring a survey to the community to find out what it is willing to support.
“If they come back to us and say that $20 million is the limit to what they’ll support then we have to work with that,” he said.
“If they come back and tell us the elementary schools are the priority we might have to adjust what money goes where,” he continued.
The board will is holding another working referendum meeting Monday at 5 p.m. in the High School library to start working on the survey that Hibner and the architects are outlining this week.
Hibner stressed to the board that the community will tell them what they will support.
“I think we have to be cautious in ‘telling’ the community what it wants,” he warned the board. “We need to be asking ‘what do you want?’”
