Gilman keeps eye to future for staffing needs

District projects under 200 students across all grades by 2028, looks at options

The members of the Gilman School Board are keeping their eyes on the future as it continues to deal with the issues it is facing today.

At Monday’s board meeting, members discussed how the district would address staffing needs in special education today and how they tie into the reality of administrative changes in coming years. District administrator Wally Leipart told board members that while there are grade levels of 27 in the high school and middle school, at the elementary school level there isn’t a class with more than 18 students.

Based on those numbers, Leipart projected that the district would have under 200 students from kindergarten to 12th grade by 2028. This enrollment will have an impact on staffing including at the administrative level with plans to eventually get to a full time 4K-12 principal and a half-time administrator. Currently Leipart splits his time being administrator and elementary principal.

With changes in the special education needs of the district, another immediate option was to have the administrator also serve as the director of special education. Leipart advised the board to look at its longterm vision about where they see the district going in the future. He said the special education position is more timely than it is difficult, with things due on tight timelines. “If it is due on the 15th it has to be done that day,” he said.

He suggested that instead of merging that position, the district could instead contract with CESA 10 for the special education director work. He said this would also help the district fulfill its maintenance of effort requirements for special education funding.

“You will make poor decisions if you do it strictly on people,” he said, instead urging the board to make decisions based on structure and what is in the interest of education in the community. Contracting the special education to CESA would have an annual cost of about $50,000 for half-time services.

“To me that seems like it makes the most sense,” agreed board president Bruce Ewings.

Leipart said that when it comes to special education, the district would always be responsive to the needs that arise. “This is the nature of special education,” he said of the changing needs.

Board members then got into a discussion of Leipart’s job description, or lack of formal one, and the job duties as designated in policy. In addition, there are duties assigned as part of his employment contract with the district. After several minutes of discussion, the board decided to hold off on making a decision on the job description.

However, later in the meeting approved the service contract for CESA 10 dropping a literacy academy program and going with the special education director services. Leipart recommended dropping the literacy academy due to it not matching expectations.

Baseball cooperative

Four Gilman student athletes will gear up in Thorp baseball uniforms this spring as the school board agreed to a one-year cooperative under COVID-19 rule exemptions.

According to baseball coach Dave Kroeplin he only had four students come out for the team with two seniors, a freshman and a sophomore. Kroeplin said it was a surprise that so few took part, especially considering last season was canceled due to COVID-19.

According to Leipart, under the oneyear agreement with Thorp, Gilman would use a school van to transport the players to Thorp for practices and games and would continue to pay its coaches who would assist Thorp.

“We are just coming together for practice and play,” he said. “It won’t cost us any more than getting to Thorp.”

Kroeplin said the coaching philosophies between Gilman and Thorp are very similar and he did not anticipate that being a problem. “We will just be helping each other out,” he said. He expressed hope that Gilman would return to having enough players for its own team next spring.

Principal Jon Hess noted that two years ago, Gilman had a conference championship team and blamed the shortage of players on COVID-19. One of the advantages of bringing Gilman to Thorp this season is that the Thorp squad is at 18 players and with Gilman’s four will be able to field a full Junior Varsity team allowing the underclassmen to have more playing time.

While all the home games are currently scheduled to be played in Thorp, Kroeplin said they are working to have a game or two played in Gilman.

With Taylor County in a low-risk rating for COVID-19, the restrictions for athletes will be lower this spring than in fall and winter and fans are once-again encouraged to attend in person.

According to Hess, athletes will have to wear facial covering on the bus but not while competing. In addition, there will be no list for attendees or ticket issues. However, spectators are encouraged to sit in family groups. Plans are for concessions to once again be sold at the spring games.

Hess said the first day for practice isn’t until toward the end of April, but coaches and students can have up to 15 contact days prior to the start of the season.

In other business, board members:

_ Received a report that under the newly passed stimulus package, Gilman would be receiving about $2 million in ESSER funds to spend over the next 2.5 years. Leipart said that 20% of the funds needed to be spent to address learning loss due to COVID-19. However, the rest of the funds are more open-ended as to how they can be used. Leipart cautioned the board that the district is on schedule to go back to voters next spring to renew the operational referendum for another five years. He said the federal funds are a way to do projects that would not otherwise be possible, but that they did not replace the community’s responsibility for school operations.

_ Reviewed the results of the HOPE survey. This is a reflection of employees’ views of the employment culture of the district. Leipart said the district is very close to being showcase material. He said there are three groups in the district, swimmers who see everything through rose colored glasses, shark watchers who like the idea but who always have questions and are good task managers, and the pole huggers who aren’t buying into changes. “Our pole huggers are misunderstood,” Leipart said, noting these individuals need to be encouraged rather than left behind.

_ Approved switching students to using iPads for K-12 and using federal grant dollars to pay for it. Previously the higher grades used Chromebooks. Hess noted there was not much of a price difference between the two and said there would be more functionality with the iPads. The board also approved purchasing Chromebooks and, as needed, internet cellular hotspots for school board members to be able to electronically access board packets and information on a school-issued device.

_ Received the announcement that the district would receive $1,000 from Security Health Plan for whatever needs they wanted as a door prize from the Wisconsin Association of School Board annual conference.