Sept. 26, 2017 – West Bend, WI – About 35 people were in attendance Monday during the West Bend School District’s annual meeting.
School Board president Tiffany Larson read through four resolutions including the proposed levy for the 2017-2018 school year, the sale or disposal of property belonging to the district, the salary of board members and the annual meeting date for the annual meeting in 2018.
During the meeting as the resolutions were read everyone in attendance but one stood to approve the resolutions. They were later then approved unanimously by the board. Tonnie Schmidt was the only board member not in attendance. On two occasions the votes from the public were unanimous.
Following the meeting board member Tim Stellmacher said the votes Monday were advisory only and there are three dates that will still impact the final 2017-2018 budget.
The dates include the third Friday count which will give the district its membership; that count will be turned over to the Department of Public Instruction on Friday, Sept. 29. “That count will bring the revenue limit into focus,” said Stellmacher.
October 1 is the assessed valuation of property values for the district. “That brings in a little closer what the wealth is of the district per member,” he said. Those numbers would come from the State Department of Revenue.
The last number to affect the final budget is Oct. 15 when the district will receive the state equalization aid. “Because the revenue limit is made up of the state equalization aid and the tax levy the higher the state aid the lower the tax levy for the operational budget,” Stellmacher said.
The final budget will likely be set Oct. 16.
On a side note: This was a unique budget process as the West Bend School District is without a finance director or manager. Brittany Altendorf, the director of finance and support services, resigned from the West Bend School District on July 25, 2017.
And within the last two weeks the districts finance manager Michael Fischer also resigned.
“Normally you would like the finance people in place because they’re looking into individual line items and it probably takes a couple years for a business manager to touch everything to the level it should be,” said Stellmacher. “We’re still putting the pieces together.”
David Van Spankeren, Executive Director of Business Services, CESA 6, is currently filling in at the WBSD in the finance department.
Finally, Laura Jackson, Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning, said Superintendent Erik Olson would be returning from medical leave next week. He will return to work on a part-time basis for one week and then begin a full-time schedule the week after.