Heights prepays debt, saves money

The Wisconsin Heights School Board approved a defeasance of some of their 2021 referendum debt at their March 11th meeting. Prepayment of debt saves the district from paying some interest and takes the bonds “legally off the books.” Craig Gerlach, Interim District Administrator, noted that Wisconsin Heights’ responsible financial behavior of prepaying debt will end up costing those who invested in the bonds, as they will see less profit from interest. Dale Green, elementary principal and Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment reported on the newly enacted Act 20, which dictates that all Wisconsin schools are required to provide science-based early literacy instruction in both universal and intervention settings. “I’ll say it out loud: this is one of those unfunded mandates,” said Green. “It’s more for teachers to learn.” As a board member noted, teachers will also be doing this new work for free. And the district has to enact the curriculum for free as well. Costs aside, the legislation seeks to do good. Act includes:   A Reading Readiness Screener: Districts will be required to administer a reading readiness screener to all students in K-3. This screener will be the same statewide. Students scoring below the 25th percentile will be given a diagnostic assessment. Reading Plans: Students who score below the 25th percentile on the readiness screener are required to have a reading plan in place, which includes specific areas of need, progress monitoring criteria, intervention being used, and suggestions for parents. Students must have an adequate rate of progress. 3rd grade promotion: “A school board may not promote a 3rd grade pupil to the 4th grade unless the pupil satisfies the criteria specified by the school board’s policy…” Mandatory Early Reading Professional Development: All K-3rd grade teachers are required to receive professional development in early reading instruction. Wisconsin Heights staff has started this training and has a plan in place to meet the requirement by July 1, 2025.    Gerlach spoke more generally on the referendum during the meeting, hitting various topics that have been around and in the minds of board members and residents.  He mentioned the question he’s been asked about the potential savings from the consolidation of the district into one new building. People are wondering where that went. Gerlach cited the Pandemic cost increases, inflation, and CPI increases, among other things. The savings the district hoped to realize, he said, were eaten up by increased costs. Gerlach also touched upon the $11,000 per student spending that the district has spoken about. A few readers of the Star News reached out about the district’s numbers not matching publicly available data. The Star has been in contact with the district about this and they have patiently explained some of the more arcane parts of school finance in Wisconsin. The $11,000 figure is current for 2023-24. There was some confusion among readers that was the case, but the 2023-24 Revenue Limit Worksheet published by the Department of Instruction shows the figure. What does this number mean, though—and that’s the tricky part. This number is the amount of money the district can raise per student between taxes and state aid (general aid, high poverty aid, computer aid and exempt personal property aids only). Any additional revenues the district wishes to raise either need to be through legislative authorized exemptions to exceed the revenue limit or funds outside the revenue limit. Examples of funds outside the revenue limit include: Federal Grants (must be used for specific purposes), ESSER Grants (these expire after 2023-24 year), and Special Education Categorical Aids, which only fund roughly 31.5% of aid eligible costs). The different figures per student mentioned are most likely different ways of looking at the data, or cutting up the numbers, and district staff point to comparative cost or comparative revenue figures that show the district spending more. These higher figures, showing more spending per student than the $11,000 figure, include things like debt service payments for referendum debt. The district wanted to show and use the “base revenue limit,” the amount per student that comes straight from the base tax and state aid.