Prescott’s regular meeting of the School Board was held lastWednesday night.

Although an overall positive night, the Board was saddened to learn that high school biology teacher Jason Brazzale put in his resignation, effective November 30th. The Board members individually shared messages of sadness at learning the news before wishing him the best in his future endeavors.

The Board also learned that the School still plans to honor members of the United States Military by celebrating Veteran’s Day this year, albeit virtually.

The first week of November will also be Prescott High School’s HomecomingWeek.

“As you know, we’ve been working a lot on reengineering and reorganizing our entire organization,” Superintendent Dr. Rick Spicuzza informed the Board. “We’ve had a lot of struggles as well as our community and family as we deal with the ongoing pandemic of COVID-19. Some people have referred to it as kind of the fatigue of COVID, I would be one as well. But unfortunately, COVID is not done with us. As we continue to try to mitigate that ongoing virus and disease at our schools and community, we also have an obligation to continue to refine and improve our educational delivery,” Spicuzza continued.

“I want to just thank both the staff from Malone Elementary and Intermediate and their two principals,” Spicuzza elaborated. “Not only did they come with an identifying problem, but they came with a few solutions. We met over a period of two weeks. They also took time to reach out to their families with a Frequently Asked Questions document.”

Spicuzza thanked the administrators for listening to parents and working with the concerns of the community as he explained they are trying to find a middle ground that works not only for their students, but all of the staff and members of the community involved in the Prescott School District.

The Board elected to make every Monday for the rest of the school year a two-hour early release for grades 4k through fifth grade. With plans in place for students to be monitored until the time they would normally be picked up, the Board unanimously voted in favor of the idea.

Budget

Finance Coordinator Renee Peterson joined the Board to give an update on the budget so far.

Peterson shared that an official from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction commended the Prescott School District for how they have handled their budget in these strange times. It was reported that Prescott’s budget is far better off than most districts in the state of Wisconsin.

“I guess that’s a good thing for us, we didn’t get hit as hard as many other districts so we kind of have to keep that in the back of our head as well, that we are better off than a lot of districts and there are a lot of districts struggling with the decrease in student enrollment,” Peterson shared.

Peterson reported to the Board that after student numbers had been finalized, the total levy for the Prescott School District will be $9,592,245.

“It did go up a little bit from last year, but on average, we are still below where we were back in 2018,” Peterson explained.

Survey

The week of October 12th, the School District sent out a survey to all households in Prescott regarding District Facilities Needs. Community members have been asked to complete the survey and mail it back or log on to the website listed to answer the questions.

“Our schools play an important role in our community,” stated Superintendent of Schools Dr. Rick Spicuzza in a release earlier in October. “As we make decisions that will guide the direction of our schools for years to come, we want to ensure that everyone has a voice in the planning process. This survey allows us to do that.”

Survey results will be presented at the November school board meeting and available on the district website.