Cliff ahead

A worker from Brodin Studios with the help of Dennis Huotari of Huotari Construction works to install the remaining two pieces of the Killed In Action Memorial in the Medford City Park. The pieces depict a soldier presenting a folded flag to an empty chair symbolizing the funeral ceremony where a spouse or parent is presented the folded flag of a service member who died. The chair is left empty so that visitors may sit on it and experience the deep emotion of the piece. The memorial was formally dedicated on Memorial Day this year but delays resulted in the two remaining pieces not being done until now. The project has been led by American Legion Post No. 147 and the Medford Area Senior High School History Club with the support of many community donors.

School finance director warns of shortfalls without increased funding or cuts

Schools in Wisconsin are headed toward a fiscal cliff and a Medford school board member thinks local board members should be looking at ways to cushion the fall.

At Monday’s school finance committee meeting, committee chairman Brian Hallgren said the district needs to start looking at staffing district-wide about places to cut. He suggested they should look at the amount of interaction staff has with students and said it may be higher-level classes that get cut because they have relatively fewer students in them. School finance committee members hint at future budget, staff cuts

“We need to look at what we are offering and if it makes sense,” Hallgren said.

The current financial situation has its roots in the state budget and a political divide between Gov. Tony Evers and the state legislature. According to district administrator Pat Sullivan, while the state legislature’s budget guarantees the “maintenance of effort” level of funding needed to qualify for federal grants, putting the state’s budget surplus toward tax cuts rather than, at the minimum, inflationary increases in school aids forces districts to scramble to fill budget holes.

The district’s budget, for the coming school year shows about a $485,000 deficit. Sullivan suggested a portion of that deficit would be reduced through applying part of this year’s expected surplus. A major part of the legislature’s justification for giving schools minimal additional support in the biennial budget is that districts across the state are receiving Federal ESSER grants. Medford is projected to receive $2 million in the third round of ESSER grants. The district has until 2024 to use the money. School finance director Audra Brooks explained that it is a reimbursement grant, noting it takes about a month for the district to get the money when they submit for reimbursement. She also noted that the ESSER funds have strings attached related to COVID-19 relief.

Sullivan said it is poor budgeting to hire permanent staff based on short-term, or one-time grant funding. “You shouldn’t hire staff based on that,” he said.

According to finance director Audra Brooks, not including any inflationary increases in state funding and using grant funds to supplement the budget sets districts up for shortfalls in the future.

“It creates a fiscal cliff,” she said, noting that the district will be constantly chasing large deficits unless they make cuts.

Hallgren agreed and said most of the ESSER funds should be spent on one time expenses. Brooks cautioned that they have to be connected to COVID and while some areas are broad, spending on buildings is not allowed, but cleaning supplies would be.

Sullivan said that using the funds for

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ULY staffing is allowed as long as the district can tie it to overcoming learning loss due to COVID. Brooks also noted that there is the potential for the district to tap into additional discretionary grant funds which reward districts, such as Medford, which offered face to face instruction last school year. In order to qualify for those funds, Brooks needs to account for each teacher’s classroom instruction time while subtracting any time students who took the school’s virtual learning option had. She said it would take until August to figure out how much additional funds the district could receive.

Sullivan said one of the issues is that legislators around the state are mad at their home school districts for having virtual instruction. Brooks noted that Medford is still better off than the Madison and Milwaukee areas which were all virtual through most of the school year.

While Hallgren called for the district to begin eyeing places to cut, board president Dave Fleegel took the position of needing to look out for the educational needs of the district. Brooks noted that the current process for grant-funded positions is that they are hired with a sunset clause.

He noted that the district has hired staff on grants in the past knowing that they would have a two to three year lifespan. He said in many cases, the district found ways to keep these employees on after the grant funding was used.

Hallgren repeated his call for the district to begin looking at staffing districtwide with the eye to making cuts. He said they would need to look at if people should be replaced as they have resignations or retirements.

“Nobody wants to get rid of people,” Fleegel said. The other option, committee members noted, is to go to the community and seek a referendum to exceed the revenue cap.

Committee member Steve Deml cautioned against a referendum predicting it would be opposed in the community.

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