Savings used for track, field
Stratford superintendent says Fund 46 use has been fiscally prudent
Dr. Nathan Lehman, Stratford schools superintendent, last week Wednesday told the Stratford Board of Education that it has used district savings to pay for recent maintenance projects.
He said the school district took money from Fund 46 to pay for a new section of roof above the middle/high school library and commons area, a newlyseeded grass football field with a drainage system and a new polyurethane track.
Lehman will update the school board at its October meeting on exactly how much money the school district removed from Fund 46 to pay general contractor Fisher Tracks of Boone, Iowa, for the new football field and track. The school district received donations from businesses and private individuals to fund the project, reducing the amount of money it needed to take from Fund 46.
The school board initially thought the school district would use the entire $415,000 in Fund 46 for the football field and track project.
In 2013, a Wisconsin Statute 120.137 was established allowing school boards to approve long-term capital improvement plans. This allowed school boards to reallocate money from Fund 10 to Fund 46 for capital improvements within the district.
Lehman said in 2016 the Stratford school board approved a resolution to create the Capital Improvement Trust Fund (Fund 46). The school board’s priorities were updating sections of the roof on the school buildings each year and resurfacing the track. Both projects were completed this year.
“We want the community to understand that moving money from Fund 10 to Fund 46 benefits our schools and taxpayers,” Lehman said. “At the end of the fiscal year, the school board can transfer money from Fund 10 to Fund 46 which acts like an expenditure and the school district gets more state aid on these expenditures the following year, which helps to keep the mil rates lower resulting in less taxes.” Lehman said putting money in Fund 46 helps the district keep up with maintenance but not fund school operations, like teacher salaries.
“We haven’t been receiving the amount of state aid that we should be getting, which is why we need an operational referendum,” Lehman said, referring to the non-recurring referendum question on the Nov. 8 ballot.
Chris Dickinson, Stratford school board president, said he wants the public to know the school board has been fiscally responsible even as it has spent money on a new grass football field and track.
He said the school board has held the line on spending, not replacing the jobs of teachers who’ve retired in the past four years and reducing its busing costs by $66,000 this school year.
“The track was always our first priority but an opportunity to redo the football field just simply made sense now than in the future to avoid damaging the new track,” Dickinson said.
Stratford School District will have operational referendum listening sessions for the public from 6-7 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 17, and Wednesday, Oct. 26, in the band room. Stratford High School National Honor Society members will provide daycare in the high school gym.
Lehman said over 80 percent of Wisconsin school districts have gone to referendum in the last five years.
“School districts in Wisconsin that are not seeing an increase in student enrollment are having trouble making it and I believe I heard that 78 percent of schools in the state have a declining enrollment,” he said. “People are just having less kids these days.”
In other news:
n Lehman said Stratford School District administration and the Stratford Police Department collaborated with school district staff on ALICE training. Dickinson asked Lehman if he’s had discussions with Tim Miller, Stratford Police Chief, on having a school resource officer in the school buildings. Lehman responded he’s not had any discussions with the Stratford Police Department on implementing a school resource officer.
Janeen LaBorde, Stratford middle/ high school principal, said retired Stratford schools superintendent Scott Winch determined it was too expensive for the school district to employ a school resource officer. Dickinson said he understands it is a considerable cost to hire a school resource officer but he said the Abbotsford/Colby Police Department has a school resource officer and the cost is shared equally between the Abbotsford and Colby school districts and the Abbotsford/Colby Police Department.
Dickinson said a few weeks ago at a meeting in Marshfield, he heard a presentation from a father of one of the victims in the Parkland, Fla. school shooting in 2018. He said the school shooting only lasted about two or three minutes.
“I think if you have a school resource officer physically in the school buildings, then you have a better chance of reacting to a school shooting rather than needing to call a police department, even if it is nearby, because it still takes police officers time to respond,” Dickinson said.
n The school board hired part-time paraprofessionals Heidi Moen and Delaney Dennee. The school board accepted the resignation of part-time kitchen worker Sheila Slade and hired kitchen employee Angela Ehlert.
n January’s regular monthly school board meeting will be held one week earlier, on Wednesday, Jan. 11, because school board members are attending the state convention on the third Wednesday of the month when the school board meeting is normally held.
