January 2018

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Why is it Necessary?

The school district is experiencing a steady trend of declining enrollment. For the first time in a long, long time a freshman class entered the high school at the beginning of this year with under 100 students.

We receive approximately $9,500 in state calculated revenue per student which is the largest source (85%) of District operating revenue; it’s a combination of property tax and state aid. Over the last ten years, our enrollment has declined by 140 students, which represents a loss of revenue that exceeds $1,300,000 for one year alone.

Average enrollment at the elementary level right now is 88 students per grade level. At the high school, the average is 104 students per grade. If this trend of declining enrollment continues, we will have 68 fewer students by the 2021-2022 school year, which represents a decrease of an additional $640,000 in operating revenue in that single year alone.

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S c h o o l D i s t r i c t o f M a p l e

Volume 42, No. 3

January 2018

What is the Referendum For?

The School District of Maple is asking the residents of the school district to vote on an operating referen-dum in order to continue to provide current programs and

services to:



Maintain current programs and extra-curricular activi-ties at all levels



Retain quality teachers and to maintain appropriate class sizes



Be eligible for a $25,000 matching grant to help fund the high school Tech Ed. Department.

This is not a building referendum, it is not to add courses and it is not for curriculum.

A 1.7 million dollar referendum draft was brought to the community. Residents within the District were mailed a paper survey in October to assess community support for a referendum vote for operating expenses to be scheduled for the April 3, 2018 Election.

Also as a result of the survey, it was noted that those residents who do not have students attending the School District of Maple would like to see information distributed through the mail. Therefore, this news-letter will provide information and answer some of the most frequently asked questions as well as provide a glimpse of some of the great things happening within the schools.

What Will the April 3 Referendum Cost?

Originally, the district was asking for 1.7 million dollars per year for five years.

As a result of community feedback and input, the amount of the referendum has been drastically de-creased to a total of $582,000 per year for three years.

The average increase in taxes will typically be $68 for every $100,000 of property value per year. Most of our municipalities have experienced a reduction in taxes in 2017 as compared to 2016, which is the result of increased property values and decreasing school revenue. For most households, even with the passage of this referendum, your taxes may be lower than in 2016.

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Page 2 “ L e a d e r s a n d L e a r n e r s , T o d a y a n d T o m o r r o w ”

KINDERGARTEN NOTES FROM IRON RIVER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

During the month of November, the Kindergartners at Iron River Elementary talked about things that they were thankful for. In specific, they talked about how they are thankful for books.

Each day of the month, one student brings a book from home or chooses a book out of the classroom library. The student shares why they chose that book to be shared with the class. Some parents were able to make arrangements to come into the classroom and read to the class when it was their child's day to share a book.

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What Cuts Have Been Made So Far?

What Happens if the Referendum Doesn’t Pass?

What Happens Next?

More than $3.7 million in reductions have occurred over the past ten years by:

 eliminating employee early retirement options,

 decreasing employee health benefits,

 eliminating administrative and staff positions,

 eliminating 13 morning bus routes,

 increasing class sizes,

 reducing building budgets, and

 combining classroom grades at Iron River Elementary.

Community Meetings were held this fall that provided information that has been included in this newsletter. We have also re-ceived community input from a survey that was sent out to all mail and post office box holders in the District.



Significant cuts in staffing and programming will have to be made to offset the loss of revenue and increasing costs of operation.



This will result in elementary and middle school class sizes reaching and exceeding 30 students per classroom.



Two more meetings will be held at Northwestern High School this spring to present more up-to-date information and to seek additional feedback from the community. Dates to be announced.



The District is currently compiling a list of community groups and organizations that we would like to visit in order to provide information, answer questions and gather feedback.



The District also welcomes any invitation from any group or organization!

Where Do I Get More Information

You will find the results of the Community Survey, answers to questions asked at the September and October Referendum meetings, as well as school board minutes on our webpage at www.nw-tigers.org.

For more information about any of the above or to make an appoint-ment to talk to our administrators, call Peggy Janigo @ 715-363-2431; extension 2264

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Headline

Donations were received by: the Classics By The Lake (CBTL) car club provided a donation of $300 each to the (Top L to R) NHS Choir, NHS Band, (Below L to R) Tiger Manufacturing and NHS Trap Shooting Club.

Classics By The Lake (CBTL) Car Club

Makes Donations To NHS!

After a lesson on Veterans Day, the second, third and fourth grade stu-dents at the Iron River Elementary School wrote letters to the local vet-erans in our area. The letters were delivered to the VFW. Pictured are some of the third graders and their letters.

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Happenings at the

Iron River Elementary

School

The third graders at the Iron River Elementary School built popsicle stick bridges after reading the story, Pop's Bridge, in their reading book. The story is about how it took teamwork to build the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California.

Third graders are learning about the food web in northern Wisconsin with Mrs. Weber from the Cable Museum.

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Headline

NES Fifth Graders sing It Came Upon the Midnight Clear in this year’s Holiday Pro-gram, held on December 19 at NES. Top row: TJ Stollenwerk, Adeline Pooler, Preston Van Aernum, Beau Helenius, Alex Carswell 3rd_{row: Jayden Jankowski,}

Caleb Phillips, Bryce Ronchi, Brock Breezee 2nd_{row: Jack Huber, Keegan}

Weller, Kaylie Thomas, Adam Benoit, Oscar Danz 1st_{row: Eve Kriske, Isabella}

Melin, Logan Jones, Jarrod Fossum

NES Fourth graders Lauren Wiita, Tava Krawza, Grace Schmidt, Belle Stariha, Trevor Peterson, and Ashley Erickson prepare to play recorders while singing Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.

Fine Arts Hit a Sweet Note at Northwestern Elementary School

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August 27-28 New Teacher Inservice August 29-30 All Teacher Inservice

August 31 No School

September 3 Labor Day - No School

September 4 First Day of School for Grades 1-9, Open House for Kindergarten September 4-7 4 Year-Old (4K) Kindergarten Screening

September 5 School For All Students Grades 1-12, School for Kindergarteners in Group “A” September 6 School for Kindergarteners in Group “B”

September 7 School Starts for All Kindergarteners September 10 4K Monday-Wednesday Class Starts September 11 4K Tuesday-Thursday Class Starts

October 3 Evening High School and Middle School Parent/Teacher Conferences November 1 Last Day of 1st Quarter

November 2 No School for Students - Staff Development Day November 19-23 No School for Students

November 21 Elementary Parent/Teacher Conferences - No School December 24-31 Winter Break - No School

January 1 New Year’s Day - No School

January 2 School Resumes

January 24 Last Day of 2nd Quarter

January 25 No School for Students - Staff Development Day

February 27 Evening High School and Middle School Parent/Teacher Conferences March 11 Elementary Parent/Teacher Conferences - No School

March 12-15 Spring Break

April 4 Last Day of 3rd quarter

April 5 EARLY RELEASE FOR STUDENTS - Staff Development Day

April 19 No School

May 27 Memorial Day - No School

June 7 Last Day for Students

June 10 Staff Development Day

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Be The First To Be Notified!

Information regarding school closing and event cancellations will be posted

to “Remind” before all other media outlets!

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Your Questions Answered

“ L e a d e r s a n d L e a r n e r s , T o d a y a n d T o m o r r o w ” Page 9

How many teachers have left our District due to low wages?

In the past three years, 14 teachers have left the School District of Maple for higher pay in other districts.

The following are some specifics on cost reductions already in place:

One of the biggest cost savings is that the District is no longer paying 100% of the employee retirement, (only the employer’s share, which is mandated by state law). Also another large cost saving was reducing the health insurance benefits and increas-ing deductibles for all employees. We have also eliminated early retirement benefits for employees. These three items saved 2.5 million over the course of four (4) years. The removal of the district-funded retirement benefits also plays a role in why some teachers are leaving us. In addition, the State reduced our aid by at least this amount.

We have combined classes at IRES for kindergarten/first grade and second grade/third grade for art, music, and physical educa-tion. There are 30 students in the afternoon for kindergarten and 1st_{grade and 25 in the combined 2}nd _{and 3}rd_{grade. We have} eliminated staff through attrition, absorbed and reduced staffing and fringes, totaling $449,315 in 2017-18 alone. As class sizes become smaller, we are analyzing ways to be more efficient while trying to offer as many options to our students and families as possible. However, there is not much left to cut without affecting programs and the lay-off of additional staff.

What options have been considered for additional streams of revenue?

We have been extremely active in trying to recruit our home-based schooling families in the District to increase our enrollment by offering online classes and curriculum. We do charge outside for-profit organizations to use our school buildings and they reim-burse the District for the costs of any staff that may be utilized. We did a “Drive 4UR Schools” fundraiser for technology that brought $6,900 into the District in 2016 and in 2017 it was $5,080. We use the “Cash for Kids” Midland Services program annu-ally for technology as well, this year, and we received a check for $4,717.06.

We have just started our second year of the “Tiger’s Den” before and after school childcare program. The Tiger’s Den cleared, after expenses, $26,977 in 2016-17.

Are There Grants the District is Actively Pursuing? E-rate as an example . . . this

can help offset some of the costs.

We have continually applied and received grants to help enhance our special education program and teacher education in tech-nology. This year alone it includes but is not limited to: WTI (Wisconsin Technology Initiative) $24,878; AODA/Link Crew Grant (Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse) $14,995; Middle School Bullying Grant: $15,000; SOARING (Special Education-Autism Train-ing) $8,000; and several others such as Peer Review/Mentor Grant, Educator Effectiveness Grant, TEACH Grant, and Acellus Grant were achieved and funds issued.

Again, these grants are for specific teacher training and maintaining specific student programs. Unfortunately, there are no grants out there for operational costs or funding of staff salaries.

We have always filed for E-rate funding which goes directly into telecommunications and wireless infrastructure. For example the District was just awarded $33,262 at a 70% funding level to cover $47,518 of high speed replacement wireless transmitters and high speed switches. We have applied for a Fab Lab Grant for $25,000 and are required to match the funding if we are approved. This grant will help our technology education (shop class) obtain some needed equipment.

Our District experienced a 17% reduction in state aid – is that correct?

Yes, since the 2007-08 school year our district state aid was reduced by 17% or $2,136,376.

Is Douglas County the poorest county in Wisconsin?

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Below is a calculation of expenses (dollars paid out) and revenue (dollars received) for the Iron River Elementary School:

Outside Services. mow, snow, gym floor care and maintenance $ 9,583

Natural Gas $ 9,819

Electricity $ 9,687 Sewer $ 1,865

Supplies – paper towels, toilet paper, etc. $ 2,214

Custodial $ 64,836

Total Annual Building Cost $ 98,004 State revenue limit for one student (FTE) = $9,484

FTE’s to cover building costs = $98,004/$9,484 OR 10 Resident Students

Iron River contribution to Total District Operating Cost:

Building Cost $ 98,004

Teachers and Food Service (direct costs that follow students) $464,683

Total Iron River Cost $562,687

Less Actual Total 2016-17 FTE revenue at Iron River $834,224 (14 Open Enrolled from South Shore and Drummond $94,472)

(78 Resident $739,752)

Equals Net Positive Contribution to Total District Operating cost $271,537

How Can the District Justify Keeping the Iron River Elementary

School Open When in a Time of Deficit?

In 2016-17 a comparison study of personnel was done between the cost to educate students at IRES and NES. All staff sala-ries were divided by the number of students in each school. It costs approximately $300 more to educate a child at the Iron Riv-er Elementary School (IRES) than at NorthwestRiv-ern Elementary School (NES). HowevRiv-er, building costs are $2.93 pRiv-er square foot at IRES and $3.16 per square foot at NES.

Next to salaries, transportation is our highest cost. It would be a significant increase to bus Iron River Elementary students to NES, and it would lengthen the busing time by another 25 minutes which would make the routes average one hour and twenty-five minutes one way. Also of importance is that there is not enough room to accommodate an additional 93 students at NES as they already educate 431+ students and may cause overcrowding.

How many schools in the state are doing referendums?

There were 67 school districts statewide referendum questions on the November 2016 election ballot, in April of 2017 there were 65 school districts that went to referendum. Recently (within the last two years) South Shore, Ashland, Hayward, Solon Springs, and Superior have gone to referendum.

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You can get your Tiger on here!

NHS DECA Welcomes you to the School Store!

NMS Junior Tigers Hard at Work!!

Eighth graders are analyzing an ar-gument and preparing to write their own argumentative essays.

Eighth grade science started an inter-disciplinary unit with their language arts classes that includes research and writing an argumentative essay.

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Why is the cost for sports so high? What does the District pay?

WIAA (Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletics Association), which is the sports organization that governs high school sports in W is-consin, has waived their membership fees for the past two (2) years. If parents are paying a high cost to have their child partici-pate in sports outside of those offered through the District, they need to contact the association as those are not

school-sponsored activities.

Athletic budget is: $230,000

Revenue collected for event admission 28,000 Revenue collected from participation fees 23,000

Fees collected from other schools 34,857 (for tournaments, invitationals, etc.)

Total revenue from the sports programs is: $ 85,857 The total cost to the District: $144,143

When we get inquiries from parents of students who are looking to move into our school District, they ask about our co-curricular offerings, including athletics, drama, music, and clubs available as this is what makes for an enjoyable experience for their stu-dent while at school. They already know how high our testing statistics are, as these are available on the DPI website and linked from our webpage.

The National Center for Education Statistics states, “Almost every high school in the U.S. offers some type of extracurricular ac-tivity, such as music, academic clubs, and sports. These activities offer opportunities for students to learn the values of team-work, individual and group responsibility, physical strength and endurance, competition, diversity, and a sense of culture and community.”

Sixth graders are studying Emancipation. Interactive notebooks help keep track of all of the information they are learning!

These mathematics students were practicing for their fraction test by participating in a “locks” activity. This activity tested their fraction skills revealing the secret combination to seven different locks.

Mrs. Teal’s 8th graders are working hard with their algebra and are currently solving complex equations. They have been model-ing with mathematics usmodel-ing algebra tiles and transitionmodel-ing their knowledge to reasoning abstractly and quantitatively. They have also been writing their own equations and putting them into a real -world context. Their equations are looking awesome!

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English 10 students wrote their own one act endings to Shake-speare’s Julius Caesar and then dressed the part to act these out in the Patricia Luostari Theater.

The NHS Band recently used the proceeds from the Java Jive con-cert as well as a donation from Classics by the Lake to purchase a Roland Jazz Chorus 40 guitar amp.

Congratulations to the NHS Choir and NHS Chamber Singers for what some community members have called the choir’s best Winter Concert ever! Great job!

The District Excels in every avenue of Education

Students finished an archery unit with balloons as targets in Mr. Law-ton’s physical education class.

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NHS Art Students honoring the legacy of the late, great, Bob Ross.

Mr. Windt’s Fitness/Aerobics class worked on some Yoga poses.

Calculus students complete an amazing race throughout the school by correctly completing review questions focusing on position, velocity and acceleration func-tions.

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Spanish I students in Mrs. Vik’s block 4 class are investigating the Tener idioms. Students are able to talk about if he/she is hungry, thirsty, or in a hur-ry. He/she is also able to talk about the obligations in their lives and activities they might feel like doing. So, if he/she says “Yo tengo hambre”, you might want to watch out. The class made a Tener idiom post-er to demonstrate all five ac-tions

Spanish 3 & 4 students attended the World Language and Culture Day at St. Scholastica. Spanish 3 & 4 are using a novel about the Cuban revolution to acquire both grammar and cultural knowledge as they in-crease their proficiency in using the Spanish lan-guage.

2017 Northwestern Robert Mackey Memori-al InvitationMemori-al Wrestling meet champions- Northwestern Tigers

Seventh grade students just completed a unit on integers and presented projects on financial litera-cy including games and tracking stocks.

The sixth grade students STEM lab creating newspaper towers.

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Please elaborate on root cause behind the decrease in enrollment.

How many students have left because they are not satisfied with the

quality of the education?

As far as we know, there are only a few who leave the District because of dissatisfaction with the quality of education. There are those who feel Superior, being a larger school district, would have more programming to offer. There are those who feel the South Shore District, because it is smaller, offers more one-on-one instruction. A small number leave the District because sur-rounding schools may have less stringent graduation requirements.

We can only speculate, but one thing we know for sure - families are having less children. Another major reason is lack of affordable housing for families. We have no industry or employment with higher paying jobs to bring in or keep families for employment reasons, and our lakes properties are very costly for a growing family.

Also, we do have more children (and always have) open enrolling into our District rather than out to other school Districts. We only see a portion of state aid for those who open enroll in. We also see a gradual trend in less families participating in home-based education.

When Was the Last Referendum? How Much Was It For?

The last referendum approved by the voters was for $33 million dollars in 2006. The referendum built the new Northwestern High School, remodeled Northwestern Middle School and the Iron River Elementary School, built a new bus maintenance facility, and a forcemain wastewater system and line to the Poplar wastewater system.

Was the Athletic Complex (Football Field and Track) a Part of the

2006 Referendum?

There is misinformation circulating that the Athletic Complex, which includes the track and football field, was paid for out of referendum dollars. This is not true. Additionally, no property tax levies were ever increased for any of the Athletic Complex construction costs.

The track at the high school had to be abandoned due to disintegration, the high school could no longer host home track and field meets as it was unsafe. The old football field was destroyed during construction of the new high school because earthmovers were not allowed to travel through designated wetlands at the northeast end of the football field. It would have cost several hun-dred thousand dollars to remove the dirt and take it offsite.

Near the end of the high school project, it became clear that the track, football field, and other field sports areas were unusable. A plan was obtained from an engineering firm and subsequently brought to the board Buildings and Grounds Committee and then to the full School Board for approval subject to finding financing separate from the $33 million referendum project. State Trust Fund Loans were obtained, which will end during the 2019-20 budget year and are being paid out of the General Fund 10 revenues within the state allowed revenue caps.

Additionally, the artificial turf protects our students from concussions and is the safest surface to avoid further injuries. Careful maintenance will continue to lengthen the life of the field.

POSTAL CUSTOMER

The School District of Maple does not discriminate in employment

on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, transgender, age or handicap.

Non-Profit Organization

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