Colby K-12’s hiring process questioned

By Kevin O’Brien

Filling an open teaching position at Colby High School became a contentious issue at Monday’s school board meeting after one of the applicants, a current district employee, raised the possibility that nepotism may have led to another applicant being chosen.

Rebecca Schmelzer, a special education teacher’s assistant and substitute teacher, thanked the board for allowing her to earn her bachelor’s degree through the district’s Grow Your Own program, which provides tuition assistance to district employees and graduates who agree to teach in Colby or another neighboring district for at least five years.

“I’ve worked really hard to earn my degree while working full time, and I’ll receive my diploma at the end of this summer,” she said.

When a math teaching position opened up at Colby High School, Schmelzer said she was excited to apply because she had chosen differentiated instruction with an emphasis on algebra and geometry for her capstone class. However, she questioned why the position was posted both internally and externally, reportedly at the request of a board member who is related to the applicant chosen for the position.

“It is listed this way in our handbook – to post jobs this way – but it seems board members are able to influence which ones actually are,” she said. “Multiple elementary po-

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sitions were filled with internal transfers, and not external postings.”

Job openings were filled with existing district employees for years, she said, but recently, they started being opened up to outside candidates in a way that she described as selective. She accused the board of allowing nepotism to influence the district’s hiring practices and said it will be interesting to compare the new employee’s signing bonus and salary to those earned by longtime employees of the district. “It seems like the years of service as an aide do not seem to add to our worth,” she said. “Although we are told how valuable we are – and how important – until wages are discussed, and then we’re back to hourly employees.”

Schmelzer said hourly employees can expect a 25-cent increase in their wages every year, but she’s seen several teachers “bargain for thousands of dollars in raises by threatening to leave.”

Another example of unfair wages, according to Schmelzer, applies to hourly employees who have a substitute teaching license and are able to earn extra compensation by accepting sub assignments. When a teacher’s aide is asked to substitute, however, she said they receive no extra pay, even though they are expected to handle both their own duties and those of the teacher.

“In these cases, we are performing the same duties as the teachers who are subbing, yet aides are paid a small fraction of what teachers are paid, or zero,” she said.

Schmelzer also accused the district of providing aides with “hand-me-down” technology, which makes their jobs more difficult because all the curriculum is online. She questioned why budget cuts were directed at aides while more money was going for hiring bonuses and raises for certain teachers.

After years of developing a rapport with students and helping with everything from instruction to disciplinary matters, Schmelzer said she does not feel valued by the district.

“Unfortunately I feel more respect from the students than I do from the administration,” she said, referring to how she felt that her interview process was mishandled.

Schmelzer said she felt like she was being pushed into different subject areas, even after expressing an interest in teaching high school math after pursuing her degree.

“I just really feel undervalued as a longtime employee, especially when I hear the superintendent tell us that he wants to make the Colby School District a place people want to stay,” she said.

When it came time to approve the hiring of a new teachers for next year, the board voted to move the matter into closed session for further discussion.

Superintendent Patrick Galligan said Tuesday that, following the closed session, the board approved the hiring of Emily Goodwin as a high school math teacher, Nicholas Zindars as a four-year-old kindergarten teacher and Casey Hilts as vocal music director and drama advisor for 20252026. Board president Dave Decker abstained from the vote.

Logging planned

After hearing from DNR forester Justin Kapusta, the board authorized some select tree-cutting in the district’s 76-acre school forest located in the town of Hoard near Owen.

Kapusta said Wisconsin’s school forest program allows districts to own forestland for both educational purposes and to generate revenue from timber sales under the management of the DNR. He said the forest unit near Owen is a little overdue for thinning the trees, so the plan is to get the process started so logging can occur sometime in the fall or next spring.

The district only needs to pay for paint to mark the trees, with the DNR covering the cost of the actual logging operations, he said. Kapusta said he’s more than willing to work with the district’s ag instructor if students want to participate in the process as an educational experience. “The whole purpose of the school forest is education above all else, so we can incorporate it into a class,” he said.

Kapusta said the plan is to cut down some maples on the west end of the forest, with the goal of eliminating trees with defects and health issues. All of the proceeds from the timber sales will go to the district after Kapusta verifies the amount.

The district took in about $8,000 in revenue the last time the forest unit in the city of Colby was logged a few years ago by Ewert Logging. A new logging contract would need to be bid out if the project were estimated to generate over $10,000 in revenue, or more than 500 cords of wood, but he doesn’t think that will be needed in this case.

When asked about the possibility of collecting sap from the maples in the town of Hoard forest, Kapusta said the trees are a little too small at this point to tap, but that could be done in the future.

Other business

■ Galligan told the board that the district unfortunately had to cancel an order for a new pool ramp that was approved at the prior month’s meeting. After discussions with consultants at SiteLogIQ, he said it was determined that that ramp would not comply with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which requires the district to install a special pool chair that allows people with disabilities to enter and exit the water. An anchor is also needed to hold the chair in place, and it’s unclear at this point if the ramp would fit in the same area.

“We can revisit it in the future,” he said.

■ Following a closed session discussion, the board approved new administrative contracts for 2025-2026, with a collective 2.95 percent raise for Galligan, principals Steve Wozniak, Brian Popp and Matt Cihlar, and director of pupil services Jason Penry.

■ The board accepted the following resignations: Brock Normand as art teacher, Sarah Oehmichen as high school student council advisor, Laureen Underwood as prom co-advisor, and Monica Tesmer as prom co-advisor and SADD advisor.

■ During an update on the district’s referendum- approved projects, Galligan said the district plans on replacing portions of the roofs at the high school and elementary buildings this summer, as well as replacing some windows and doors throughout the K12 campus. Galligan said the district will be able to reallocate about $1.3 million within the referendum budget after the roofing costs were reduced from an estimate of $1.9 million down to $650,000. The district is working with Site LogIQ to redesign some of the special education classrooms using the available money.

■ The board approved a motion to terminate the district’s contract with Vestis, a company that had been providing rugs for the school buildings. Galligan said district staff felt the rugs had become a safety issue, with students repeatedly tripping on them and a staff member falling at the district office due to the curled up corners. The district will have to pay 50 percent of the remaining contract amount to terminate early, and it also plans on purchasing its own rugs. The combined cost is estimated to be about $17,000, which is about what the district would have had to pay had it kept its contract with Vestis.

■ The board approved a five-year, $106,000 contract with Bauernfeind Business Technologies of Marshfield for revamping and maintaining all of the district’s printers.

■ The board renewed its shared services contract with the Abbotsford, Owen-Withee and Spencer school districts for the Grow Your Own scholarship program. Started in 2022, the program provides tuition assistance to employees and graduates who agree to teach in one of the consortium schools for at least five years.

■ The board accepted a $36,200 bid from Boson to put in a concrete pad and repair some existing concrete in preparation for a new HVAC system being installed this summer.

BRAGGING RIGHTS - Jim Bragg, right, a former Colby School Board member and longtime volunteer, was presented with a certificate of recognition Monday by superintendent Patrick Galligan. Bragg recently earned the 2025 Bert Grover Child Advocate Award from the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators.

STAFF PHOTO/KEVIN O’BRIEN

FRIENDLY AWARD - School nurse Kelly Meyer was presented with a certificate of recognition Monday by superintendent Patrick Galligan. The Clark County Health Department recently presented Meyer with its Friend of Public Health Award.

STAFF PHOTO/KEVIN O’BRIEN