Wisconsin Heights starts in-person labs for students

The Wisconsin Heights School District started Middle School/High School labs for students on Monday. These labs bring students to the school to augment their online education. In addition, close to 100 students are enrolled in Student Support Hubs, in-person classes for students identified to be at risk. Finally, in-person 4K education started a few weeks ago. The District’s online-only model is still causing problems for some parents. Angie Wolf spoke during the public comment period, talking about her four children, and specifically her first grader.  Her first grader “hates school,” she said, and “wants to physically see” his classmates.  “I don’t feel [this model] is meeting out educational requirements,” said Wolf. “He’s only online for maybe two hours a day.” “It’s really important that we stop and think about what we’re doing to our younger kids,” she said. Wolf said the District should find out what larger area districts are doing, and emulate their model and practices.  “I think we need to move forward, not keep stepping backwards,” said Wolf. “I’m just a frustrated parent of four kids.” Later in the meeting--addressing Wolf’s concerns--District Administrator Jordan Sinz noted that parents who feel their kids are falling behind or having issues should first contact their teachers--who know the situation best. From there, things can be escalated to the principal, and so on. Another resident wrote a letter expressing concerns about the proposed elementary school being lose to Highway 14.  Sinz talked about the distances he measured between the proposed entrance and playground. He said there are 175 yards between the elementary entrance as planned, as well as 300 yards--and two fences--between the playground and Highway 14. The board had a short presentation about next year’s budget, with a more in-dept look at the next meeting. The bottom line is a mill rate decrease of a few cents, and a mill rate that is $1.80 less than where it was five years ago. Sinz made sure to note that if the operations referendum passed, the mill rate would return to the level from 5ive years ago. He also explained to a resident attending the meeting exactly how taxes and mill rates relate. The mill rate is the amount taxed per thousand dollars of assessed value on a property. As properties are assessed, their values can and often do change. Therefore, even if the mill rate remains the same, one’s tax bill can change. Likewise, municipal taxes play a part in the large “pie” from which the District gets its tax revenue. Changes to municipal share can change tax bills as well. The proposed budget this year--acknowledging that the numbers are estimates--stands at $12.9 million. This is a 6 percent increase over last year--but the mill rate went down. This is due, mostly, to the total appraised value of properties in the district growing.  Public Health of Madison and Dane County reported the growing COVID-19 cases in Dane County, as well as at the local level. Sinz also shared some information from a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article, with data that showed there have been 710 COVID-19 infections in schools to date. In terms of when the District can return to in-person classes, Sinz spoke about “turning the dial,” and not “flipping a switch,” meaning they would take an incremental approach to reopening. He said it takes three weeks alone to prepare for a switch in a teaching model. He noted 22 percent of the District’s students are in some way having face-to-face instruction. Sinz warned of the “yo-yo” affect, where District’s reopen, only to quarantine or close due to an infection. He also said, “There are educators in our state that have died of COVID. That’s the reality.”