Edgar school board makes budget cuts

Failed referendum means lost bus route, staffing cuts

The Edgar Board of Education on Thursday approved a $170,850 list of budget cuts for the 2021-22 school year, reacting to a second failed revenue cap referendum on April 6.

The cuts come on top of $135,000 in belt-tightening measures the district has approved over the past several years as it has felt a budget squeeze, the result of losing about 100 students in its official enrollment.

The approved cuts meant to help fill a $350,000 district deficit next school year include:

_ Not replacing veteran second grade teacher Tammy Anderson who is retiring, $85,000 (salary and benefits).

_ Not hiring Marathon County special education paraprofessionals to work during teacher inservice, $6,250.

_ Reductions in classroom supplies and staff instructional training, $5,000.

_ Elimination of one bus route, $37,000.

_ Not offering elementary school girls and boys basketball and Girls On The Run ($2,600) and middle school cocurricular opportunities ($35,000).

Board members also approved higher fees and switching funding:

_ Doubling student athletic fees, $3,000 ($50 for high school students, $30 for middle school students).

_ Doubling student registration fees, $2,000 (High school/middle school, $30, and elementary, $20).

_ Using federal COVID-19 relief ESSER II funding to pay for summer school, $120,000.

In board debate, Corey Mueller successfully persuaded board members not to close the Edgar Fitness center for a $2,800 savings, nor charge a $300 annual fee to get an added $30,000 in revenue.

“That’s a tough sell, in my opinion,” he said.

District bookkeeper Morgan Mueller said that charging a fee for use of the fitness center would, in itself, be a cost. Someone would have to record fees paid and do the necessary accounting, she said.

Board members considered not offering summer school but not after the bookkeeper told board members that the 500 students who partake would not be counted in the district’s official enrollment, further constricting the district revenue cap.

District administrator Dr. Cari Guden said ending summer school would save money short term, but would cost the district in the future.

“It’s a short-term fix with long-term implications,” she said.

Board president Bill Dittman said that once the district cut summer school it would be hard to restore it. The district would have to wait two years before seeing state aid on its expenditure, he said.

Board members agreed to an administration recommendation to keep summer school, but to fund it with one-time federal dollars.

Past budget cuts include not buying athletic uniforms, $25,000; eliminating student accident insurance, $13,000; eliminating field trips, $12,000; no teacher overloads, $7,000; dropping in-house college English, $5,000; lowering supply budgets, $23,000; and deferring maintenance, $50,000. School officials said it would be tough to run an elementary school program without replacing Tammy Anderson as a second grade teacher, but that the school would try and make it work. Elementary school principal Lisa Witt said staffing at Edgar Public Schools was already lean and it would be hard to cut additional staff moving forward. “We are bare bones,” she said. “There are no extra teachers.”

Guden told board members the district would mail a survey to residents to ask them why they voted no on the spring referendum. The $800,000 recurring referendum narrowly failed, 532 to 568.

The administrator said the district would run a third revenue cap referendum in either February or April 2022.

Former school president Sue Haupt told school board members that she has spoken to many Edgar school district residents about the referendum and that people were confused about the measure.

“Ninety percent had no idea what recurring or non-recurring means,” she said.

Haupt said that many people did not understand that when the school district pays off its remodeling loan in three years that tax money used to pay that debt disappears and will not be available to be used for the general budget.

She said any future referendum needed to be spearheaded by district citizens, not school board members or staff. “That’s because people know and trust their friends and neighbors,” she said.

Haupt said Edgar ran the risk of becoming like Bruce, Weyerhaeuser or Glidden, villages without a school.

In other board business:

_ Guden announced that Edgar Public Schools was unique in the area for offering in-person instruction five days a week without ever once closing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

_ It was reported in a technology report that the school district owns 600 Chromebooks, 170 iPads and 150 computers.

_ Board members approved coaching positions for this school year. They include Kelly Wieland, Girls On The Run; Evan Krebsbach, varsity volleyball coach; and Macy Borchardt as junior varsity assistant softball coach.

_ The board hired Terrence Barkley as night custodian. Board members accepted the resignation of Heidi Olson as a middle school science teacher and retirement of Tammy Anderson after 31 years of teaching in Edgar.

_ Edgar High School principal Tom McCarty said three valedictorians would be honored with other graduates at a May 12, 6 p.m. commencement that will be held in the school gymnasiums. The valedictorians are Rachel Brewster, Drew Guden and McKenna Guden.