At this point, no.  Because of two points in the initial terms of the CARES Act.  One, stimulus funding is coming from the federal government and it specifically is contingent upon schools continuing to employ all employees.  Two, how it would impact the school’s Unemployment reimbursement situation, was not clarified and there was a concern that the cost of laying employees off would be nearly the same as retaining them.  Additionally, the concern was that any current employee who was laid off might look to find immediate employment elsewhere and not be available when the COVID-19 situation was over.  Given the challenges to finding good employees who will work for what we can afford as a District, especially bus drivers, it was agreed that a modest amount of cost difference to maintain them as employees was justified.  And keep in mind that most of our employees - teachers, administrators, aides, custodians and food service staff members have continued to play crucial roles throughout the COVID-19 shutdown.

There are 16 employees: Superintendent, Director of Teaching and Learning, Teaching and Learning Coordinator, Director of Special Education, Business Manager, Director of Building and Grounds, Alternative Education Teachers (2), Aide for the Alternative Education Program, Assistant to the Superintendent, Assistant to Teaching and Learning, Assistant to Special Education, Payroll, Accounts Payable, Database Coordinator, Director of Technology.

Employees and employers both contribute an amount equal to 6.75% of an employee’s earnings to the Wisconsin Retirement System.  This is a state law and is one of the many areas in which we have no say or ability to negotiate.

We currently have 18 past employees that remain as a result of contracts that were in place more than a decade ago and/or are grandfathered based on a large scale 2013 change to retirement health benefits.  We are nearing the point that we will no longer have any in this situation.   Forcibly removing those that remain would not only demonstrate a lack of integrity on the part of the District, but would also subject us to litigation and legal costs.

No, and neither have we done so with transportation.  We have looked into contracting for these services on various occasions.  For several reasons, including higher costs to contract, this route hasn’t been chosen.  One common reason we often do not change is the unknown cost increases in future years.  Many other school districts that do contract report they experience large increases from one year to the next with a contractor.  When there are limited contractor options they have you at the mercy of these increases.  We, on the other hand, are able to control our costs internally.

What is the deductible?

Employees have two options:  a $1,000 family deductible option or a $4,000 family deductible option.  The  $4,000 family deductible option is our base plan.  The employee pays more for the $1,000 family plan. 

How much does each employee pay towards their plan?

They pay 18% for the $1000 plan and 11.5% for the $4000 plan.$4,044 for the $1,000 plan and $2,395 for the $4,000 plan.

What is the total cost for each employee?

$18,432 if on a family plan.

Do you allow the spouse to come on to the school plan?

Yes.  Janesville school district is the only school we know of that imposed this restriction, and months later reversed it.  We need to stay competitive in the market with other school districts and eliminating this option would put East Troy at a significant disadvantage for attracting and retaining staff in the educational market.

Yes, every year.

No, we do not employ psychiatrists at any age level. We do have school psychologists in each building. Specifically, we have a 0.6 FTE school psychologist for grades PK-1, a 1.0 FTE school psychologist for grades 2-5, a 1.0 school psychologist for grades 6-8 and a school psychologist for grades 9-12. 

School psychologists and psychiatrists are different in that psychiatrists are physicians with medical degrees (MD) and prescribe medications when needed. In contrast, school psychologists are specialist level psychologists who specialize in working in schools. School psychologists work within special education systems and regular education by providing brief therapeutic services to students (interventions), consulting with parents and staff, directly assessing students and working to develop systems to support mental health, social-emotional and behavioral well-being for all learners. While psychologists in any setting frequently work with youth and families more directly through providing therapeutic interventions, psychiatrists are often the professionals who oversee medical management of mental health needs. Psychiatrists typically do not offer direct therapy to anyone and more often oversee prescriptions and manage the multiple layers of service providers within a community setting. 

The services of a school psychologist are necessary to the essential functions within special education through the direct and indirect services that they provide such as when mandated by a child’s individualized education program (IEP), 504 accommodation plan or in explaining the assessments and data to those teams.

To clarify, the District did not “market” the referendum.  The District did have an obligation to prepare and distribute educational materials for our voting constituency, but we are legally required to present facts, and not opinions or recommendations.  There was a local citizens group that was clearly supporting the efforts to pass the referendum, but the District is not affiliated with that group and in no way supports them financially or with District employees.

The cost of the flyers however:  invoices for two separate mailings show a total of $2,610 for the first larger multipage mailing, and $1,586 for the 2-sided mailing.

Custodian pay starts at $16 with a max of $20.42.

Yes, per a letter from the WI SAA:

For 2020-21:

Major K-12 financial elements in the second year of the state biennium include an increase of $179 per member in the revenue limit formula and an increase in special education categorical aid from a 26% reimbursement rate to 30%. However, these elements were predicated on an assumed level of state revenue which may not be achievable. It is at least a possibility that a ‘budget repair bill’ at the state level could reduce these major budget elements.

School district budget planners should be prepared to model several revenue limit scenarios, including these three:

Best Case: $179 added to your revenue limit per member and 30% reimbursement rate on qualifying special education expenditures (the current plan for 2020-21).

No Revenue Limit Increase Case: $0 added to your revenue limit per member and 30% reimbursement rate on qualifying special education expenditures. (You may also want to model this with a 26% reimbursement rate on qualifying special education expenditures (i.e. no special education categorical aid increase).

Worst Case: ($50) decrease in your revenue limit per member and 26% (no increase) reimbursement rate on qualifying special education expenditures.

As you can see, a wide range of outcomes is reasonable for contingency planning at this point.

This means that we are instituting several levels of contingency planning, the first of which includes across the board pay freezes for the 20-21 budget cycle.  The federal stimulus dollars from the CARES Act would also be one layer of contingency planning.