PRESCOTT – Food Service Director Nicole Lenzner returned to present the Prescott School District Nutrition Services Financial Review during the Prescott School Board meeting on July 17. There was good news that the 2024 revenue was $126,000 more than expected and well over $200,00 more than 2019 but unfortunately reimbursement rates shrunk back to pre-COVID amounts.

Lenzner explained the back of the house costs involved. The Nutrition Service Department paid over $17,000 credit card processing fees in 2024 which, thanks to switching to Infinite Campus, the department will see this savings in the next year.

Inflation caused the price of every item to increase but they are seeing a downward trend, Lenzner explained. The department took advantage of an opportunity to pre-purchase menu items at a big discount. Lenzner said the items included chicken nuggets, chicken patties, burgers and foods that kids love the most.

A decision to temporarily pause hiring for one cook position will save the district approximately $16,000 annually. Lenzner said they will continue to advocate for eating school lunch for students and staff and will push for free meals for all students. Even though revenues are up and measures taken to save money, it still leaves enough of a deficit to require an increase in meal prices by 25 cents and 10 cents for morning milk.

Learning updates

Intermediate School Principal Michael Kosmalski told the board about a recent conference held in Arizona where he and group of educators attended a BTC presentation by author Dr. Peter Liljedahl, a professor of mathematics education at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. He is the current president of the Canadian Mathematics Education Study Group. The goal is to implement BTC in the Prescott School District through teaching strategies to be developed through training sessions featuring four tool kits.

Kosmalski also updated the board on Act 20. The universal reading screener aimswebPLUS was selected for statewide use, which will be administered twice per year for 4K; 5K-grade 3 will be three times per year. This is required to be implemented by Jan. 1, 2025. A diagnostic is required within 10 days if a student scores below the 25^th percentile and the school must communicate results to parents no later than 15 days after the screening. Districts are required to develop and post an early literacy remediation plan handbook which includes a parent notification policy. On the funding end of the mandates, the $50 million budgeted to implement the statewide literacy bill has not been released to the Department of Public Instruction.

High School Principal Josh Fiege presented a draft of a proposal to move the Driver’s Education program from an in-school run program to a partnership with Northwood Technical College. He reported that 17 other school districts partner with NTC for Driver’s Education. Fiege said the district would need permission from Chippewa Valley Technical College to break away from their alliance for this one class as CVTC does not offer Driver’s Education. He was not able to contact CVTC at this time.

Three points were highlighted for moving this instruction out of the district:

1. Resources staffing, vehicle, curriculum needs are increasingly difficult for small districts to manage
2. Driver’s Education requires at least two instructors for classroom and behind the wheel instruction and the licensure is difficult to obtain; the district has only two instructors, one of which is retired
3. Competition with larger organizations that offer higher salaries for instructors and more flexibility with options make it difficult to sustain instructors; it also goes beyond the PSD core mission and responsibility.

No decision was made during the meeting as this is the first presentation and more information from CVTC needs to be gathered.

The board discussed bussing to daycare centers within two miles of the district again. Members listened to a day care representative advocating bussing for 4K students enrolled in nearby daycare centers. It was the decision of the board to provide bus service to all licensed or certified daycare centers within a 2-mile radius of the Prescott School District. It was noted that only those enrolled in said daycare centers are allowed to ride the bus. It was suggested that other families may want to have students dropped off at these centers just to ride the bus; the bus service rep said there would be no room on the bus for any extra students.

Superintendent Dr. Rick Spicuzza, new Finance Coordinator Cara Klatt and retired Finance Coordinator Sue Gerdes presented the proposed balanced budget which will be published in the Pierce County Journal. Although the budget is balanced, it is not sustainable in the long term if the district wishes to maintain its staff salaries and standards of excellence, Spicuzza said. For this reason, the board asked Spicuzza and the finance coordinators to do more work to specify what would be financially viable to be able to retain/recruit staff and keep up the academic standards of PSD. As state/federal funding will not support this goal, the school board will most likely ask for local funding once again perhaps as soon as November 2024.