PRESCOTT – At the Nov. 20 Prescott School Board meeting, Superintendent Dr. Rick Spicuzza and the board spent much of the meeting attempting to defuse tensions among citizens who, according to a community Facebook page, were calling for the removal of the school board members and the superintendent. The friction sparked from an apparent misinterpretation of a 2023 tax worksheet which was part of a city council packet.

Spicuzza explained how the confusion began.

“On Nov. 11, there was city council meeting in which part of the packet had information that was not fully complete, and that's not a surprise; both the school districts and governmental agencies like cities and municipalities receive information at different points in time. It is one of the hardest things to do to be able to build a budget while information is coming in at different times. This should have been a day of celebration both for the board and our community, for investing in our students. Unfortunately, that information that came out of a council packet was not fully baked. It wasn't intended to be fully baked, and that has created a kind of fire storm with regards to innuendos or maybe challenging the competency, the accuracy of information that was presented by the school district. I'm pretty boring. I'm going to share with you there's no smoking gun. There was no intent to provide or mislead the community. All of the information is accurate, what the school district provided and continues to provide, both on its website and from August all the way through adoption of its budget. There is no inaccuracy with regards to how school districts are asked to report information.

“And I want to thank Matt Wolf (city administrator) and the mayor because they took the initiative in the summer to reach out to our school board and myself, because they said, since COVID, there have not been intergovernmental meetings, and it would be best, and I think, acknowledged that if we have taxpayers who have only one wallet, and we are operating and only are able to operate based on the taxes that come in, it would behoove us to make sure that opportunities align, that we talk about efficiencies, and we have done remarkable things as a school district in a city with regard to student safety with stop lights crossing guards. Earlier today, (Activities Director) Matt Smith sat in on a meeting in which the city is looking at opportunities for safe passage across Highway 10, both for pedestrians and for bicycles.”

Spicuzza presented an example of the Pierce County mill rates for property taxes dated 2023 in which the school levy portion appeared to be $693,273.23 more than was reported. In actuality, the city adds the TIF (Tax Incremental Finance) portion ($693,273.23) to the school line, but the city keeps that portion to finance the TID (Tax Incremental District). A TID is a city project that is not voted upon and not part of the school district levy formula and is an important part of growing the city.

Spicuzza presented both the 2023 tax worksheets from the Nov. 11 city council meeting and the 2024 Tax Increment Worksheet which was released a few days after that meeting. It revealed that the school board did not misrepresent or mislead the public about school tax levy. During the explanation of the situation the board members did not blame the city council and said they would like to work more closely with them in the future.

During public comment a Prescott woman with one student in the district spoke out against the board.

“First of all, your silence is deafening. The fact that it took you so many days to say anything did not help you at all. I know many of you have Facebook pages that you use, and the fact that you were silent on that told everybody what they needed to know. I genuinely wonder if the school board or the school superintendent thought that he could get this passed under the radar, and that nobody would figure out their actual numbers, and that, sorry, there was a miscommunication.”

She went on to say that staff members are afraid to speak out for fear of retaliation. She said this referendum will affect some family’s ability to buy groceries; she believes the school board should have communicated to the public more and sooner and worked with the city.

“To continuously blame the city over and over and over again for your own shortcomings is disgusting because you are probably, I would say, in my opinion, more at fault than the city is because they weren't asking for a referendum. You were. It's your job to know the numbers inside and out. You pay people obscene amounts of money for what clearly, they probably missed the mark too. Maybe it's time to find a new firm. They're obviously not doing their job. You will be replaced [addressing the school board members] this April, next April and April following that and Rick, quite honestly, watch yourself, because when that, when the board is replaced, you will be too.”

Next up was Jamie McDonough, an 18-year veteran teacher at PSD.

“One, clarify, I'm not making those copious amounts of money that were just mentioned, so let's be careful how we include bias. We're teaching that in fifth grade right now, bias in your argument or presentation. So, words like everybody, that's an extreme amount of bias, because you don't speak for everybody.

“Also, this wasn't Rick's referendum. Again, 18 years in the district, blood, sweat and tears scar from my first day when we used to have to cut tennis balls to protect the wax on the floor. So actual blood. Mumbling doesn't bother me, [addressing some audience members], I teach fifth graders. To clarify, thanks board for supporting the teachers. Thanks for supporting our students, to which are my own, who are in larger classrooms, larger class sizes this year. Again, as an 18-year veteran in the district, I would say that many of us are not afraid to speak up. We do feel supported. My administrator would tell you, maybe I speak up more than I should. I've never been reprimanded for that. I'm not fearful of being reprimanded for that. We have the ability to have open dialog. We always have. It's why not a single district in the area has outscored fifth grade in the last few years. We’re doing our jobs. We need the support of the district and the community. So, thank you to those that did vote to support the teachers. It's really hard to go on social media and feel like you are being degraded, bashed and not valued by the very people whose children you spend more time with than your own.”

Mark Helmer from Oak Grove township also spoke in support of the school board.

“I have served on the school board and many committees. I'd like to say, townships, the city council, school board, make Prescott an excellent place to raise a family, and I'm proud of it. There's going to be differences of opinion in how you get to the right place, and it would be very nice if people could be civil about it without threats and accusations. They can work through the process. Tonight there were a lot of numbers up there, and I think the school district did a fairly good job of explaining how they came to their numbers, and I'm sure the city has done a good job of figuring out how they got to their numbers. Thing is, it was $1.2 million that's going to the school district, the community voted in a very close vote, that $1.2 million was worth it, and now that it's passed, there's a lot of ways of trying to get that reversed, because the losers didn't like it, and it happens.”

At this time President Mike Matzek had to quiet the members of the audience for the second time.

“Referendums come again, again at different amounts and people are fortunate enough to give their opinion and vote, and just like a lot of the elections here, we don't always agree, but I would hope that we could agree to be civil. And it's not bad to have competition for school board seats. It's not bad to have split, split types of boards. It's not bad to have unanimous boards. Sometimes that's because they've worked behind the scenes enough to agree that this is what should come forward. There are so many moving parts to making community successful, and to pick one or two little items and try to blow it up, I think is shameful. I hope Prescott can do better. Our community deserves it. Definitely. Our students deserve it. And the civil servants and all the municipalities, the teachers, the administration, everybody, not just the school employees, but all the communities, deserve our respect because it's a hard job. It's very thankless. You take arrows upon arrows upon arrows. You commented you don't post on Facebook quick enough. Well, that is not a legitimate, vetted media. There's no liable. Anything can be said. I do not believe that Facebook should be the go-to for your information. It's viable to point out information, but there's no credibility to it.

“I just want to thank the board for your effort. I want to thank the city. I saw a lot of them here, the city council. I saw a lot of them here. That is impressive. I see the city treasurer. She's here as well, listening, taking the information in. Very bright individual, very good at her job. We just need to get on the same page. I believe that the information brought forward is correct today, but 1.2 million on this referendum was voted for, and I'm glad it passed, but I'm not ashamed to say it,” Helmer concluded.

The board also discussed post referendum budget items. Cuts made at the end of last school year, such as reducing a section in each grade level, other staff reductions, reduced athletic and arts programs as well as in-town bussing will be reevaluated. It was noted that the district has saved money through innovative thinking. The sawmill project has saved taxpayers over $60,000 and a grant for $28,000 to fund special education, continuing education and job training has been a big savings.

Spicuzza announced the upcoming April election for school board seats held by incumbents Matzek and Vicki Rudolph; the deadline for applications is Jan. 7, 2025 at the district’s main office.