Colby School Board approves ramp for pool

By Nathaniel Underwood

The Colby School Board approved the purchase of a new accessibility ramp for the high school pool at its regular monthly meeting on Monday.

The issue was initially raised during the board’s February meeting. At that meeting, two options were discussed to give more accessibility to the pool — those being a ramp that could be taken in and out of the pool and a chair that would be a permanent fixture.

While the chair would likely be cheaper overall, the board eventually decided to have school administration pursue the ramp option, citing ease of use and the fact that the chair would require some adjustments to be made to the deck around the pool.

The ramp will allow for easier access to the pool for young children, pregnant mothers, older individuals and others with mobility issues. Having this sort of access would also bring the school pool into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guidelines.

The ramp will be on wheels so it can be taken in and out of the pool as needed, though it will require several people to move it. It would likely remain out of the pool and stored along one of the walls in the pool area during the fall swim season and then remain in the pool during the rest of the year.

A preliminary quote of about $23,000 for the project was given by Reliable Ramps, a company out of Chicago, in February. That number came down to just under $16,000 in the final quote from Reliable Ramps that was presented to the board on Monday.

The district received other quotes, though those were closer to the preliminary number received from Reliable Ramps. Even with the slightly cheaper price tag, the cost of the project was still noted as being significant. The benefits of adding the ramp to the pool outweighed these concerns in the eyes of the board.

“Trying to get in and out on those steps can be very difficult for some. We see this not only as a need for ADA compliance, but also as a community asset,” superintendent Patrick Galligan said. “It is a very hefty price, there’s no doubt about it, but I feel like it would be a great benefit.”

Because the ramp will need to be custom-made to fit the pool’s dimensions, there was no exact timeframe as to when the new equipment will be delivered.

Staff pay increases

The school board approved a 2.95 percent base pool increase to be divided equally for teachers, hourly support staff, executive support staff and administration staff at Monday’s meeting.

This is down from the 4.5 percent increase that the board approved last year, and the 4.25 percent increase approved in April of 2023. The raises will also not include bonuses that the district was able to fund using ESSER money in recent years.

The board typically bases its adjustments to the base pool increases around the Consumer Price Index (CPI), a measure of average shifts in consumer prices that can be used to help determine changes in cost of living. Last year’s 4.5 percent increase was slightly above the CPI increase, but the prior two increases had been below.

“A great deal of discussion was held at the personnel committee about these measures, and we talked through several options about how we might potentially

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look at distributing pay, what percentages, those kinds of things,” Galligan said. “It was decided, after that discussion, that we should stay with the CPI, which is what the 2.95 [percent] is for this past fiscal year because of the budget uncertainty that we have at both the state level as well as federal funding levels.”

“We’re hearing from the state of Wisconsin legislators and others that we will probably not have an answer as to what the state budget will look like until well after July 1, which is traditionally when we get those numbers,” he added. “And so I think, to stay conservative, we will stay at the rate of CPI for right now and then, not only will we potentially have the option of doing bonuses for faculty if we end up with some additional funding beyond what we know what we can count on from the state at this time, but we have different options we can play out when we have that certainty.”

Another factor behind the decision to keep with the normal CPI increase was the fact that Act 10 could be adjudicated some time in the next year. The 2011 law limited salary bargaining rights for government employees, including teachers, to increases that can be no more than the inflation rate. Other benefits cannot be negotiated under Act 10.

Changes to the law could affect future pay for district staff, but with uncertainty remaining as to what those changes might be and whether or not they come to pass, administration and the personnel committee believed that keeping things the same for now would allow them the most flexibility to make changes in the future.

“I think trying to keep things as they are right now and letting us react beyond that puts us in a better spot than doing something that could potentially cause us difficulty financially three to five years from now that leads us to unintended consequences,” Galligan added.

Other business

■ The board approved two additional projects. One is an upgrade to the high school HVAC systems for a cost of $24,900, while the other is the purchase two new heating pumps variable frequency drive (VFD) replacements in the elementary school for about $12,000. The HVAC system update is a project that the board has considered in numerous meetings over the past year and was at one point potentially going to be part of the referendum before it was removed. The VFD replacements were deemed necessary after one system went down and the other appeared close to the end of its service life..

■ Resignations of Susan Young as a special education teacher and Benjamin Bartelt as the Ed Rising and Forensics advisor were accepted by the board. New hires approved were Nichole Braaten, first grade teacher, Lindsey Tyrolt, kindergarten teacher, Courtney Raymond, behavior interventionist at the elementary school, Logan Rosemeyer, co-athletic director, and Laura Depner, head middle school girls basketball coach. Rosemeyer will also be transferring from his position as a high school math teacher to the new student support coordinator position created earlier this year.

■ New board member Liz Baumgartner was sworn in and served during her first board meeting following the reorganization meeting held before the regular board meeting on Monday.

BOARD COMMENDATIONS - A number of Colby varsity athletes received recognition at Monday’s board meeting. Above, Veronica Mateer was honored after receiving the Wisconsin Academic All-State Gold Award for gymnastics, while below, Xander Buchanan, Rolyn Hopperdietzel, Tucker Hayes, and Landon Steinman received awards for being named Academic All-State for basketball.

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