School District sets preliminary tax levy
By Tracy Ouellette
Editor
At Sept. 28 meeting of the East Troy School Board, which followed the annual meeting, District Administrator Chris Hibner announced the groundbreaking ceremony for the additions and renovations at the high school will be at 6 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 9.
After three failed facility needs referendums over the past five years, the community voted in favor of the April referendum to build a new elementary school and make major improvements to the high. Preliminary work has been going on since late spring with actual construction on the high school to begin this fall.
The community is encouraged to attend the groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate moving the district forward. There will be concessions, Hibner said Monday night. And School Board President Ted Zess reminded everyone there will be a football game immediately after.
At the annual meeting
Zess was named chairperson at the School District’s annual meeting Monday night, which began with Hibner’s annual “State of the District” address, which he vowed to keep as brief as possible so people could get home to watch the Packer game.
Hibner started his speech thanking the School Board, staff, parents, community members, students, administration and supervisors for their dedication and hard work in the district.
He outlined some of the districts accomplishments over the past year in the areas of student achievement, quality of staff, technology, facilities, operations and community engagement.
He talked about the district’s Project Based Learning initiative to have every teacher in every class make connections with community businesses and organizations and bring the real world into the classroom and give the students the chance to “think outside the box” when it comes to learning.
Hibner also spoke on the importance of seeing a year, to a year’s-plus growth in each student. He said that according to the Northwest Evaluation Association, about 48 to 58 percent of students reach their individual growth targets in the country and for the past six years, East Troy has exceeded that. But the goal was to have 100 percent of kids reach their growth target.
Hibner encouraged everyone to read through the annual meeting packet, which is available on the district’s website at www.easttroy.k12.wi.us and at the district office, 2043 Division St. It contains detailed reports on student achievement and more.
Hibner also spoke on the challenges facing the district, which included the financial strain caused by reduced state funding for education and the struggle all districts are facing attracting and keeping quality staff. He said there is more mobility than ever where teachers are concerned and when crunch time comes in late summer or early fall and a district is looking to fill a position that doesn’t have a lot of candidates, difficult choices often have to be made as to what type of salary can the district offer to get the best teacher possible.
He closed is address with the reminder that the district needed to change at a faster rate than it has been because education has been changing at a faster rate.
“Education is changing at an exponentially,” he said. “We need to understand kids must have different programs than what we had.
Tax levy set
The residents voted on a preliminary tax levy of -2.14 percent for next year after district business manager Kathy Zwirgzdas made her budget presentation.
She said that number would most likely change slightly before the final levy is set because they were still waiting on the actual state aid amount the district would receive. She said that she didn’t expect the levy to move into the positive range, but might shake out closer to a -1 percent after all was said and done.
Next year’s annual meeting will be at 6 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 26.
The School Board next meets at 6 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 26 in the high school library. The November board meeting was moved to 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 16.
