By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
For some on the School Board Monday night, the Burlington Area School District 2013-14 budget didn’t do enough.
For another, it did too much – and not in the right way.
For the rest, the budget fell in between, and like a classic fairy tale, turned out to be just right.
By a vote of 5-1 Monday night, the School Board passed the budget and the tax levy, officially finalizing numbers that have been in flux since the preliminary budget was approved in June.
The equalized tax rate will rise from $10.83 to $11.15 – an increase of 33 cents. However, individual tax rates will vary depending on the re-valuation values placed on homes. Most of the municipalities saw a drop in their equalized values because of the re-valuation, and as a result, the tax levy by municipality has dropped.
Rochester, East Troy and Spring Prairie were the only municipalities that saw values increase as a whole.
As always, the district was waiting for finalized state aid, which was an added bonus this year as Gov. Scott Walker approved an extra $75 per-pupil increase. With the district securing more general state aid than expected after enrollment numbers were confirmed, the district’s revenues are up about $525,000.
However, with added costs to fringe benefits and 2012-13 retro pay figured in, the districts expenditures rose about $800,000. As a result, the expected amount coming out of the district’s fund balance went up to more than $600,000.
That did not sit well with Board member Roger Koldeway, who expressed frustration that the district was overspending consistently, and that it would eventually run out of fund balance money.
“We’re padding the budget, adding to the budget,” he said. “We don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem.
“We’re planning on overspending.”
Koldeway ended up being the lone “nay” vote in certifying both the proposed budget and the tax levy of $20.33 million.
However, the levy amount changed during the course of the meeting. Board member Phil Ketterhagen said that Walker had recently signed the property tax relief bill, but not all of the money the district had saved was going back to taxpayers.
He suggested that the $50,000 that the district was apparently hanging onto would be better back in the pockets of taxpayers, as intended, he said.
“It’s the intent,” he stressed.
After Koldeway then argued about the spending issues, the vote was called on the budget. Ketterhagen proposed amending the budget to use $50,000 out of the fund balance to ensure the entire tax relief was back in the budget.
Tensions linger
That amendment passed, and eventually, so did the budget. However, Koldeway’s original objections remained. When he voted no, Board President David Thompson addressed the matter.
“Roger, you never cease to amaze me,” Thompson said. Koldeway responded with, “I don’t like that budget,” to which Thompson nodded and said, “I’m getting that.”
Ketterhagen’s wife, Bonnie, videotaped portions of the meeting. After the meeting adjourned, she confronted board member William Campbell about rolling his eyes, saying she would be posting the video on Facebook.
The contentiousness of the meeting remained mostly within those few exchanges, and Superintendent Peter Smet said during the budget discussion that what was proposed – and eventually accepted – was fair and balanced.
“It’s balanced between the needs of employees and needs of the taxpayers,” he said.
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Thank you Mr. Campbell for rolling your eyes! I am hoping it was in regards to the petty negative behavior of Mr. Ketterhagen and Mr. Koldeway. How fitting is it that the BHS staff members are currently presenting to our children wonderful lessons revolving around bullying and they have a great example of it right here at their own School Board meetings. Is that supposed to be a threat Bonnie? Going post the video on Facebook? Good! Let everyone see the behavior of their elected representatives. Please make sure to include lots of coverage of your husband and Mr. Koldeway. Is Mr. Campbell required to sit there and be stoic and expressionless? Is he not allowed to react when he hears information that he disagrees with? Are you now attempting to control people’s emotions? This has only served to solidify my support for Mr. Campbell and his continued dedication to the students of BASD. I would love to see the video … but I certainly would not want a bully as one of my friends, even if it is only on a Facebook friend. Please put the video on YouTube for everyone to see!
Ahhh, yes.. the eye roll. Don’t you hate that?….How did Bill Campbell not laugh in her grumpy little face?
She confronted him? For what…Bill Campbell did what every voter in this town did when they voted in the last school board election. The listened to what the Wevote candidates had to say, and rolled their eyes. The forward thinking people in this town will continue to roll their eyes at this group, and their little video cameras.
The funny thing is.. she is going to post this video on Facebook to her group of 64 members – so they can all go back and forth about what they should do about this.
I would like to thank Mrs. Ketterhagen for her continued branding of her Wevote group, she never seems to stop reminding us of who they are, and what they want to focus on.
I’m new to all of this and don’t know any of the people/groups involved. I assumed it would be a group of friendly people whom all are more interested in our children’s future above all else, I was completely shocked at the antics. I think all the meetings SHOULD be recorded in full and shown to all the parents so they could see just how the people who think they are in charge act. What I learned very quickly is that there is a group of huge bullies who seem to try running everything and were very upset when anyone disagreed. I wanted to become more involved in my children’s schools but not sure if I want to deal with the exact thing I’m trying to teach my children to stand up for. It took me about 2 minutes to see that there was one woman who almost seemed crazy in her bullying. Instead of getting nowhere, she could have made a new friend and follower. She caused the opposite with her antics…. I think she may need some professional help, she’s like one of those that you aren’t shocked to hear later went crazy and shot up a group of innocent people. At least it was quite easy for me to see who was good, who was evil! If you don’t mind me asking, how do I find out more about the Wevote thing you mentioned?