District officials plan for 2012

Act 10 changed the way most school districts did business in 2011, but many financial challenges remain for districts to solve in 2012. While all employees in most districts now pay half of their retirement contributions and at least 12.8 percent of their health insurance premiums, districts will continue to face the challenges of limitations on their revenue in 2012.

That's part of the 2012 outlook, but the year will also bring more work to integrate technology into the classrooms and efforts to teach a child based on his or her individual strengths and weaknesses. Districts must also figure out replacements for retirement benefits once covered by contracts, with several North Shore districts working on those plans in order to have them in place at the end of this school year. A look at what faces the districts in 2012 follows.

Brown Deer

Teachers and staff are working on a plan for post employment benefits, Superintendent Deb Kerr said.

"We are taking a collaborative approach and it is going well," she said. "We need to think about strategically balancing the business side with having the best teachers. The real challenge for us is we feel we have cut as much as we can. We also feel it is important to continue offering music, art, athletics and physical education."

The district continues to look at health insurance costs, wanting to reduce costs but also provide for and meet the needs of staff.

The district's major theme for 2012 will not be financial, however. With the passage of two referendum questions, the district is well under way with plans for a major transformation of the campus, moving from three buildings into a K4-six lower school and a grades seven-12 upper school.

Construction on an addition to the high school and remodeling of the middle school will begin when school closes in June.

All staff members, from custodians to teachers, are contributing to the design of the buildings.

"We will create a beautiful facility, a good learning and working environment," Kerr said.

The district also has a new strategic plan it will implement, review, and revise as necessary over the next five years.

Fox Point-Bayside

The district's contract with its teachers expires in June, but District Administrator Rachel Boechler said she doesn't expect any additional teacher layoffs. In June 2011, the district eliminated 4.5 aide positions and five teaching positions, mainly through retirement. Boechler anticipates a flat revenue budget for 2012-2013.

Teachers and staff are working on an employee handbook that will cover work rules and benefits once contracts expire.

"We are committed to treating teachers fairly within the budget constraints," Boechler said. "I am glad we had this year to watch and learn from other districts what they have done well and not done well."

The district will be adjusting its curriculum to Common Core standards, which are nationally based and have been adopted in Wisconsin.

A new phone system will allow for automated calling for substitutes in the case of teacher absences.

"We are trying to create as much efficiency as we can to capture the revenue loss," Boechler said.

The district will work on increasing its academic rigor as well.

"We want to get a variety of tools such as iPads, iPods and laptops in the classrooms and set them up to be very mobile and versatile," she said.

Glendale-River Hills

The district's contract with its teachers and support staff expires in June.

District Administrator Larry Smalley has been working on the first draft of an employee handbook, which he hopes will be adopted in March, allowing staff to plan for the changes.

Smalley said the district will use the provisions of Act 10 to help balance the 2012-2013 budget. All staff will pay half of their retirement contribution. Employees currently pay 10 percent of the health insurance premium cost but that will increase to 15 percent for 2012-2013.

"Because of the give-backs by employees, there will not be any staff cuts," he said. "I am concerned about 2013-2014 because you can't keep taking away 10 percent of people's income. If Gov. Walker continues the policy of no revenue increases for schools, the money has to come from somewhere."

The district will maintain its current retirement benefits through the 2013-2014 school year but at that point, they will change. The retirement age will become 62 rather than the current 57 years, which will reduce the number of years the district will pay health insurance for retirees.

"Early retirement was created as a cost savings and it isn't anymore," he said. "Our goal is to have an HSA and 401(k) program for new employees. There will be no retirement benefits for them."

The district will add a RTI program, Response to Intervention, which provides 30 minutes every day to personalize learning for students.

"We need to meet the needs of all kids," he said. "If they need an extra online program because they are good in math, we will get it for them. If they need help in reading, we will get that for them, too."

The district also will continue to meet social and emotional needs of students, from teaching them how to shake hands and look a person in the eye during conversations to continuing to stress morals and ethics.

"The academic part is only 50 percent of what we do," Smalley said.

Maple Dale-Indian Hills

The district will be the last in the North Shore to use the provisions of Act 10 as it has a contract with its teachers through June 2013. The current biennial budget concludes at the same time.

"We don't have a handbook," District Administrator Mary Dean said. "We are waiting to see what happens in Madison. We have a very tenured senior staff so potentially we could be looking at some resignations. We will do all we can to keep our staff."

Dean anticipates a review and upgrade of the math curriculum this year. Although it would need both staff and School Board review, Dean is interested in Singapore math.

"The countries that use that have very high scores on tests," she said.

The district will bring guided reading to grades three and four after its previous introduction into grades kindergarten through second.

Bringing itself into sync with Nicolet High School, the district, like Nicolet, is now using MAP assessments. Nicolet staff will no longer have to come to the school to test Maple Dale eighth-grade students but instead use the results of the assessments.

Named the top small workplace for fewer than 150 employees in Southeastern Wisconsin by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Dean said that Annette Evans of the teachers union, the School Board and she would be making a presentation of how the union and board work to create that environment at the Wisconsin Association of School Board meeting this month.

Mequon-Thiensville

District Administrator Demond Means expects a quiet year from a budgetary standpoint, at least compared to years past when millions of dollars had to be cut.

"Last July we made difficult decisions on health insurance and the Wisconsin Retirement System contributions," Means said. "We are now in a good place because of utilizing the Act 10 tools."

Means said the district likely will face a $1 million shortfall but he anticipates a salary freeze for 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 will help the district overcome the deficiency.

The district is introducing the new schedule at Homestead High School as a result of a switch to trimesters in the fall.

"We have established guidelines and course offerings," Means said. "Parent transition meetings are going on now."

The district, like others, is also involved in developing a new strategic plan with an eye toward its implementation in the 2012-2013 school year.

"It's too early to say what that plan will bring," he said.

The School District is also one of the four sponsoring partners in the Community Conversation Task Force and is intent on considering the recommendations from the group.

Nicolet

District Administrator Rick Monroe is excited about the RTI program - Response to Intervention - that will be ready to help students of all abilities in the fall.

"It was originally focused on intervention," Monroe said. But, the program now will offer assistance to all students, whether they need help or enrichment.

The School Board will consider a change in the daily schedule that will lengthen the school day by 11 minutes.

"It will give us time for advising periods for students who need support, intervention or enrichment," Monroe said. RTI, he said, is part of a trend toward personalized education.

The district will also replace the former WKCE standardized tests with assessments that provide individual data for each student.

"All students across the spectrum will get special attention," he said. "We will be nimble, flexible and give kids what they need when they need it."

Monroe also said students will likely be allowed to bring their personal technology into classrooms.

"We don't want students to power down when they enter the buildings," he said, noting that they could have more up-to-date technology than there is available in the school. "I see a trend where students bring their own technology to use for information gathering and guided learning."

Monroe said the passage of referendum that allows the district to exceed the revenue limit by $2,150,000 per year through the 2015-2016 school year will keep the district on an even keel financially.

"We have four years and will wait and see what happens," he said. "Things can look completely different in two years."

The district is working on an employee handbook and has an actuary reviewing retirement benefits, although he expects the School Board will approve the handbook before the end of the current school year. The teachers contract expired in June 2011.

Shorewood

District Administrator Blane McCann has announced his retirement and will be leaving in July, creating one of the tasks that will lie ahead for the district in 2012, finding his replacement.

McCann said that over the last few years the district has added resident students and is projecting the addition of another 15 for the 2012-2013 school year. The community's support for a $13.64 million referendum in 2011 to pay for health insurance for retirees and refinance a WRS loan helped close a $430,000 gap in the budget.

"We want to achieve financial stability by 2016," McCann said.

The district began a series of town hall meetings to discuss its 2012-2013 budget with the community.

"We are also talking with staff about where we could make cuts if necessary," McCann said.

The district plans a survey in February to take the temperature of the values, wants and needs in the village, he said.

Like other districts, Shorewood is working with a health insurance consultant to look at bidding out its health care needs.

"We bid it out last year and we got very competitive bids," he said, noting a trend that began with the passage of Act 10.

The district will be working on the four goals developed in its strategic plan, focusing on transformative education and personalized learning.

"Technology allows us to meet kids where they are and work from there," McCann said.

Whitefish Bay

A refreshed focus plan will allow the district to continue its student-centered education with a tradition of excellence, District Administrator Mary Gavigan said.

"I see this as being an important priority," she said. "Once the plan is approved by the board, we will start moving with it.

The district also developed a communications plan that has resulted in an updated and informative website, an ongoing outreach to the school PTOs and the first state of the state district address, which Gavigan gave last fall.

"Hopefully, as we continue to do it more people will come," she said.

The district also initiated a twice yearly newsletter, with its second edition due in April. Those interested in receiving it can do so by signing up on the district website, whitefishbayschools.com.

"We also expanded our mailed communications," Gavigan said. "There was one sent in preparation for our annual meeting.

The start time for senior kindergarten will change, moving so that it will be identical to the time for grades one through five.

"It adds an hour a day and allow us to enhance literacy and math and also art, PE and other areas," Gavigan said. "This is consistent with what other districts do."

The district schools have seen slow and steady enrollment increases, leaving it in a comfortable position with regard to finances.

"We plan to bring in a balanced budget," she said.

Being able to increase spending by $50 per pupil in the coming year will also assist the district.

The budget hinges on the district's ability to keep the cost of its employee health care plan flat either through plan changes or increased employee contributions, she said.

"We hope to be able to avoid layoffs, and intend to protect services, class sizes and support our ability to retain our teachers," Gavigan said of the coming year.