Gilman board approves microphone system for board meetings in library

Gilman School Board will make it easier for members of the public to hear at board meetings and other events in the school library.

At the September 16 school board meeting, district administrator Walter Leipert explained that the district had received concerns about residents not being able to hear at the board meetings which he viewed as being an Americans with Disabilities Act access issue. “We do need to consider doing something,” Leipart said, calling on the board to make it a priority item for the district’s facility plans. The current speaker system they have for the room only has one receiver. He noted this would impact the flow of meetings to have to pass it along.

He said they tried a different solution, but it created a lag from when people talked to when the sound came out of the speakers. He proposed the district purchase a wireless system with speakers in the ceiling of the room. A wall-mounted dial will be used to control the volume.

The system he proposed would also have the option of including the elementary portion of the library with the two areas being controlled separately so that the high school portion of the room could have the volume turned off while a teacher works with students in the elementary portion.

The cost of this system would be $14,477 through Colby-based Consulting With Clarity.

Leipart said alternatively the district could go with a wired option with plug in microphones. This would have a lot of cables running. “It is a lot of set up,” Leipart said, noting that a plug-in system would not be as accessible to classroom teachers. The cost of a wired system would be $8,522 for a basic system.

Leipart said he had also received a price quote from Hartland for a top of the line tabletop speaker system at $29,134 Leipart noted that there were no members of the public at Monday’s meeting. “This is a typical audience for board meetings,” Leipart said, noting the district needed to look at something that doesn’t just work for board meetings, but can have an educational benefit too.

Board members agreed and approved going with the $14,477 wireless system option.

While the company is in the school for the work in the library, board member Darrell Thompson asked that they look at ways to improve the sound in the high school gym. He noted issues that had occurred during the graduation ceremony.

“The system works really well in the gym,” Leipart said, explaining that unless the district invests in more speakers there will be spots that don’t sound as well as others.

Alumni scholarship

A $10,000 donation is kick-starting an effort to have a continuing Alumni Scholarship for Gilman High School graduates.

Leipart reported that an anonymous Gilman alum donated $10,000 to create a scholarship fund and that the individual has pledged to match up to another $10,000 in community donations.

The Gilman Alumni Fund Scholarship will be managed by the Eau Claire Community Foundation whose goal is to create endowments that fund community needs in perpetuity.

Leipart said they are currently $2,500 short of the amount needed to award a $500 scholarship this year and their goal is to raise that amount before the end of the month. He said the longer term goal would be to be able to give more than one scholarship.

He said they would need to have $27,000 in the fund in order to give a $1,000 scholarship each year, since the scholarship would come off of the investment earnings.

Those interested in learning more about giving to the scholarship fund may contact Leipart at the school or through the Eau Claire Community Foundation website at eccfwi.org/fund/gilmanalumni- scholarship-fund. In other business, board members:

• Received an update on the start of the school year. Principal Phil Tallman reported that there has been a lot of discussion and meetings with the new cellphone policy and in regard to expectations regarding tardiness. “The students are adjusting well to the new cellphone policy,” he said.

• Discussed the board success plan. Under this plan, there will be ongoing board trainings as part of the board meetings with a schedule focusing on specific areas to be talked about each month. Leipart said that while trainings can be useful, if they are too long they can be exhausting and proposed taking 10-15 minutes at meetings for training and professional development.

• Reviewed and approved for publication the preliminary school district budget. The budget will not be finalized until after the annual meeting on October 7 and when state aid amounts are finalized. The district’s budget calls for $7.1 million in total spending. Of that, the local levy is projected to be about $2.82 million. Leipart noted that the levy is increasing this year as a result of loss of the one-time equalization aid of $184,000 that was received last year from the state. He said the district is still at what they projected the levy to be when voters approved a referendum to exceed the revenue cap. The district is in year three of four for that referendum. While the projected tax rate is up 64 cents per $1,000 of equalized value compared to last year, it is because last year’s levy artificially dropped due to the one-time state aid.

“The mill rate is still less than what we projected in that referendum,” Thompson said.