By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
It said something about the Burlington Area School District – and the current public quiet – that Monday night’s annual meeting had just one commentator.
That was Thomas Boyle, who stood up to talk about instilling the “dignity of labor” in today’s youth.
“Our farmers can’t get laborers to come work on their farms,” said Boyle, who pointed out that students in Japanese schools work for their education, and that America’s youth need to take pride in labor.
“It seems like we’re coddling our children,” explained Boyle, pointing to the number of luxuries students have these days, and wanting to see the connection between school and the “real world and business.”
After Boyle spoke, though, the vote on the $20.68 million tax levy for the school district was a lopsided 153-3 in favor of the proposed amount.
The meeting took roughly 45 minutes, which included a review of the rules, Superintendent Peter Smet’s report and Business Director Ruth Schenning’s report.
Schenning did a quick highlight of the budget –which lowered the tax levy to $20.68 million, a decrease of about $392,000 from the original amount.
The fund balance amount was also decreased by about $72,800. The district received about $715,000 more than expected in state aid, but chose to levy from the referendum-approved debt to reduce the amount from the fund balance.
BASD is facing first-year start-up costs for 4-year-old kindergarten of a little more than $500,000, and won’t begin to recoup for state aid until next year. Health insurance costs have also dropped – a total of 30 percent over the last few years, according to Schenning.
Smet said 4K is one of two big positives right now, the other being the review of proposals for a long-term facilities plan.
“The planning process is not set yet, but I’m sure it will have several opportunities for the public and staff (to comment).”
Schenning stressed that the district is still under-levying (in terms of referendum-approved debt) and that the goal of the budget was to “balance the needs of all the stakeholders.”
“We believe we are proposing a levy that supports the budget, is fiscally responsible and which supports the educational programs.”
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Thank God we have Governor Walker who has done more for education than any previous Wisconsin Governor in my lifetime!
You are right REO, Mr. Walker has done more to HARM education than any previous governor in Wisconsin! Thanks for pointing this out for us!!! I suggest you pull your head out of the sand or other unnamed places and see things for what they are, not what FOX news paints it out to be for you!
The saddest reflection of education in WI is that there are people that actually believe what REO wrote. I blame the administrators and teachers for doing a poor job publicizing the great work that they do each and every day. Administrators and teachers need to get their story out. Create blogs, Facebook pages or even twitter accounts and publicize weekly stories about the happenings in your classroom. Many people can not even imagine what is going on in a classroom today. If the public has no idea what is going on in a classroom, how do you expect them to support it? Share your stories and flood Trolls like REO with the true message.
I agree with Sad for the most part, but there are only so many hours in a day for teachers to get the word out. The folks who should be doing this are the parents.
The parents who see their son/daughter is engaged in learning, should be thanking and getting the word out publicly.
As we keep seeing the Walker Robots take over everything (Yea it’s amazing that they didn’t complain when their kids were in school) we have to publicize the good the teachers do day in and day out.
I am not sure how defunding education in this state can be considered a good thing but for those who cling dearly to partisan politics they have little choice. Regarding the district’s ability to balance the budget, run our schools, and still win support from the public, congratulations! Tough job well done!