ELMWOOD — The Elmwood School Board approved a transition of both the student and financial management systems during the Jan. 21 meeting.

Skyward was used by the district for both of the systems. The company created a product called Qmlativ, a system some area schools use, including Plum City.

“After doing research for the last couple years on it and figuring out what we think would be best based on our current staffing in the office, our future, where people are going to be at, we think we should make this change at this time,” Superintendent Glenn Webb said. “When we say at this time, it means two to three years, potentially, for this migration to happen.”

Webb said if they filled out the paperwork, the soonest they could start with the financial management side is February 2027, but due to available slots, it would probably be February 2028. On the student management side, Webb said the earliest they could get in would be August 2027. Once they get started with the system, it is expected to take about a year to completely switch over.

Currently, the district pays $11,738 for the financial management system, which would change to $10,564 under the new system over a three-year locked annual fee. The cost to transition the system is $5,840. Student management costs would go from $7,265 per year to $6,634 with the same three-year lock and the same $5,840 transition fee.

Webb said the district is exploring whether the transition can be paid through Fund 46 (Long-Term Capital Improvement Trust Fund), but they do not expect that it can be. There will be an update at a future meeting with further information.

The board also approved a one-year cybersecurity contract with Centripetal, a company that Elmwood has used for a few years already.

“When you look at the actual cost of what the contract would be compared to what they charge us, we got in early with them, and they wanted to work with schools… Knock on wood, we haven’t had any issues,” Webb said. “The normal price that they would charge would be $23,000, but they discount it 72%, so it’s going to cost us $6,447.05, which is up just slightly from last year.”

School Calendar

The board approved a calendar for the 2026-27 school year that includes two days of jump start Aug. 24-25 for primarily elementary student, two days for transitioning students back Aug. 26-27, taking the weekend off and starting school officially Sept. 1, a Tuesday. Spring break will run March 15-19, graduation May 21 and the last day of school June 3.

Webb said the district applied to start the year prior to Sept. 1 through a Department of Public Instruction early start program, but was not approved. The calendar is identical to Plum City’s and Spring Valley used Elmwood’s as a draft, so the three neighboring districts will run on similar calendars.

Other business

• Acknowledged Blake Bechel and Austin Krentz for taking first place in the Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) Marketing Management Team Event, qualifying for the state competition.
• Approved no limit on regular education open enrollment seats, three seats available in the speech and language program and zero seats available for special education students.
• Approved the resignation of Assistant Softball Coach Kate Schneider. The district is currently searching for a new assistant for the team.
• Approved a basketball co-op agreement with Plum City.
• MS/HS Principal Tom Sauve said the district welcomed UWRF football national champions Trevor Asher (Elmwood graduate), Payton Kopp (Plum City graduate) and Brady Block (Prescott graduate) to speak to the students. “They dropped a lot of really good things on our kids. Our kids were talking about that for a few days,” Sauve said. Sauve said Kopp told the students to start at zero. He said he had a starting offensive line position, got injured, got his spot back, and when the next season starts up, he is going to start at zero again to earn his spot.