White Lake administrator Bill Fisher speaks Tuesday during a budget presentation. |
White Lake annual meeting airs successes, plans goals, OKs budget Just a handful of White Lake school district residents were on hand Tuesday evening for the annual meeting, where spending and taxes were confirmed and plans for the smallest of the three Langlade County-based schools were discussed.
Common districts, including Elcho and White Lake, are required under state law to hold the meetings. Antigo, which is unified, is not.
Scott Popelka, the board president, was selected as the chairman of the meeting and guided the session through statutory rules and introduced auditor, Jackie Surprise, who presented the district’s financial picture. Her report was adopted.
Administrator Bill Fisher took the floor and started an upbeat presentation explaining that the 2009-2010 term is “off to an exciting start.”
He said his reasons for that exciting start statement including addition of new programs involved the reading academy and curriculum development.
He addressed plans for building improvements, noting that in the past year significant strides have already been made — and more are anticipated.
Fisher called hiring of new staff members “great additions” in key instructional areas.
During his words to the public he also touched on goals, which include collecting advancement data, challenging and reaching students, and meeting school building needs.
He reviewed maintenance projects, including the pricey replacement of a heating system, sidewalk and blacktop repairs and updates in the rest rooms and locker areas in the gymnasium.
Fisher noted that enrollment is down from a year ago, but there has been a gain of five students already this fall, and five students mean a lot when state aids are figured.
“It is huge,” he stressed.
Fisher also detailed the budget, that provides “little room to maneuver,” and the restricted use of about $75,000 in stimulus money.
The budget he discussed and was approved called for a levy of $1,972,470, compared to $1,835,379 for 2008. It will result in a mill rate of $11.29 per $1,000 of equalized valuation, an increase of $1.05.
That means that the owner of a $100,000 parcel of property in White Lake will pay $1,129 in property taxes to fund school operations, a $105 increase.
The school property taxes make up only a portion of the overall bill. Taxes for the town, county, technical college and state must all be added before the final bill is determined.
Fisher said the total general fund budget stands at $3,096,167, a slight increase of $44,718.
But state equalized aid has fallen by $150,216 with White Lake expected to receive $843,131 for this school year. And the value of the district dropped 2.5 percent, to $174.6 million.
Those two numbers—lower aids and less value—blend to create the higher mill rate.
White Lake is made up of all or part of three towns and one village. The various valuations for each include the village of White Lake, $14.3 million, 8.03 percent of the total value; town of Evergreen, $36 million, 20.35 percent; Langlade, $3.8 million, 2.34 percent; and Wolf River, $120.3 million, or 69.28 percent.
The meeting also included the standard mix of annual meeting business.
Those attending the meeting increased the salary of the board members to $85 per month from $80, and declined to grant the authority for the panel to sell school-owned real estate.
Other than those two items, those attending approved a number of actions, including:
—authorize the payment of necessary expenses.
—allow for the defense or prosecution of legal actions.
—furnish textbooks, school lunches and breakfast and student accident insurance.
—allow the board to borrow when needed and sell or dispose of old or surplus property.
—and authorize the board to purchase real estate.
The annual meeting took about 90 minutes to complete.
|
|
|
